Development of a methodology from LCA to a multi-criteria approach: application to electricity transition in France

Abstract

Climate change should trigger the development of concrete arguments to justify the choice of the best energy mix, which is not the same depending on the countries involved. Life cycle assessment (LCA) uses tools that can help to define a successful energy transition, from an environmental perspective, by including a large panel of indicators. An LCA of the different sources of electricity was performed based on inventories from literature, leading to an environmental ranking of the different energies through endpoints. Four examples of energy transition scenarios corresponding to different energy demands up to 2050 were chosen for France, and compared in terms of LCA. Several multicriteria indicators were proposed for a new methodology to follow a sustainable development strategy, i.e. including economic and social parameters. The scenarios were submitted to a multicriteria sustainable assessment in order to obtain a ranking based on tuneable parameters, depending on different stakeholders’ viewpoints.