Abstract: This dataset contains the empirical datasets for the following Applied Energy journal article: Matthew Kuperus Heun and Paul E. Brockway. 2019. Meeting 2030 primary energy and economic growth goals: Mission impossible? Applied Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.255. This data set contains four excel files: * GHUsefulExergyCalcs_10-yr.xlsx Contains calculations for useful exergy for Ghana for 1971-2013, excluding muscle work. * GHFoodFeed.xlsx Contains calculations for exergy efficiencies for Ghana for 1971-2013. * GBUsefulExergyCalcs.xlsx Contains calculations for exergy efficiencies for the UK for 1960-2013. * GH_UK_2030_projections.xlsx Contains projections of primary and useful exergy for both Ghana and the UK to 2030.