TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cassoret, Bertrand
AU  - Balavoine, François
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/04/30
TI  - Environmental Impacts of Different Electricity Production Scenarios in France
JO  - Journal of Energy and Power Technology
SP  - 008
VL  - 07
IS  - 02
AB  - This study focuses on the environmental impacts of the electricity production scenarios proposed for France for 2060 by the French electricity network manager, RTE. They consider an increasing electricity consumption and a production without fossil fuels, essentially based on wind, photovoltaic, hydraulic, and, for some, nuclear power. The total power to install is significantly higher than the current one; it is higher in the scenarios that rely more on photovoltaic and less on nuclear. Renewable energies require more materials than nuclear, especially photovoltaics. The Simapro Life Cycle Assessment software is used, associated with the Ecoinvent database and CML criteria. Generally, photovoltaic electricity production, which needs more installed capacity, has a more significant impact on the environment, while hydraulic power has less effect. Based on the energy produced as well as on the installed capacity, neglecting the risk of nuclear accidents and nuclear waste management, fossil fuels being excluded from the comparisons, the scenarios that require nuclear power have less environmental impact; those that rely more on photovoltaic power have more environmental impact. For example, CO2 emissions would range from 6.8 to 10.4 g per kWh from one scenario to another. This study can be helpful for policy-makers who have to choose future ways of generating electricity.
SN  - 2690-1692
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/jept.2502008
DO  - 10.21926/jept.2502008
ID  - Cassoret2025
ER  -