The E8 Network of Expertise for the Global Environment
Use of CO2-free Technologies
EDF
Of all Europe’s major energy players, EDF in France has the lowest CO2 emissions rates per kWh, thanks to its nuclear and hydropower fleet.
Hydro is the only renewable energy that supplies a major source of power. It is also the sole means of stocking potential energy. Its profitability is time-proven. EDF generates more hydropower than any other company in the European Union, with 45.3 GWh in 2004. One of its challenges for the future is to renew its concessions under conditions that best meet the needs of other water users (farmers, fishermen, industrials, tourists) while maintaining maximal generation capacity.
To meet future needs, and after careful screening in terms of sustainable development, EDF has decided to build a new hydropower plant at Gavet in the French Alps. Representing an investment of €160 million, this will be the most important hydraulic works undertaken since the 1980s in France. The ultramodern, underground 92 MW plant will, by 2013, have replaced six former plants along the Romanche River. The new plant will generate an annual 560 MWh, 80 MWh more than the existing combined plants.
The environment will also gain from the exchange; the works are invisible, the penstocks, canals and medium voltage power lines out of view. Nearly €3.5 million will be devoted to protecting the environment.
In South-East Asia, EDF has a project in a developing country. EDF acts as an investor operator (35%) in the Nam Theun 2 Power Company Limited (NTPC) that ensures the BOOT(1) scheme for Laos’ Nam Theun project. This 1,080 MW installation will supply Thailand with nearly 6,000 GWh of renewable electricity annually, eliminating the need to develop thermal plants in the country. Building the dam will, however, mean flooding 450 km2 of the Nakai plateau. To compensate, the project will finance the protection of most of its 4,000 km2 catchment area, in the Anamneses Cordillera, of global significance in terms of biodiversity.
Site NamThuen, in Laos, before construction.
Five international workshops to prepare the project were organised by the World Bank in Asia, Europe and the United States. These workshops provided a platform for stakeholders (promoters, financiers, local populations, NGOs, media, etc.) to discuss and debate the technical, economic and socio-environmental aspects of the project.
DF also launched a research programme on generating electricity from the energy of underwater currents, using marine current turbines. EDF Energy has been experimenting with this technology off the east coast of the UK, while currents off of Barfleur, on the French side of the Channel, are being evaluated for their potential.
HYDRO-QUÉBEC
Between 1991 and 2002, the hydropower stations built by Hydro-Quebec have avoided huge amounts of GHG emissions: just for the year 2004, an equivalent development of natural gas combined cycle turbines would emit more than 15 million tonnes of CO2.
TEPCO
The best fuel mix of power sources
As a member of the Federation of Electric Power Companies in Japan that has a voluntary action plan to address climate change, TEPCO has set its voluntary target of reducing CO2 emission intensity by 20% in FY 2010 compared in FY 1990 level. This is a challenging target and TEPCO has been making every effort to achieve this goal.
TEPCO uses a combination of fuel sources to take advantage of their particular environmental, supply stability, economic and operating characteristics. Nuclear power is the cornerstone of this combination.
Nuclear power causes no emissions of CO2 in the process of generating power. Even when other life cycle stages, such as plant construction and operation, are taken into account, the amount of CO2 emitted is very small compared with thermal power, which depends on fossil fuels (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
TEPCO has chosen nuclear power as its primary power source because of its potential for mitigating global warming and adding to Japan’s energy security. In FY 2004, nuclear power generated 93.5TWh, 31% of total electricity (see Figure 2).
Figure 2
Figure 3 illustrates the volume of CO2 emission reduction through the use of nuclear power and other types of generations on the basis of amount of power generated in FY 2004. This shows that nuclear power contributed to 66.9 million tons of CO2 emission reductions in 2004. (This is calculated by the amount of electricity generated with nuclear power multiplied by the carbon intensity of average oil-fired thermal model.)
Figure 3
As explained above, nuclear power is the effective measure to mitigate CO2 emissions on the supply side of electricity.
TEPCO is striving to expand its nuclear use as much as possible with the utmost priority put on the safety of the operation and social consensus at the site of the nuclear facilities.
Global environment and sustainable energy development
The e8, comprising ten leading electricity companies from the G8 countries, was formed in 1992 following the Rio Summit to examine and co-operate on major global electricity-related issues, with an emphasis on the global environment and sustainable energy development.