Water footprint electricity mix

Here we attempt to estimate the water footprint of the French electricity mix using the paper Water footprint of bio-energy and other primary energy carriers (Gerbens-Leenes, Winnie & Hoekstra, Arjen & Meer, Th.H., 2008) which gives the water equivalent (green, blue, grey water) for each energy source.

We use the Electricity map data (displayed by year, 2023) to obtain the composition of the French mix. Curiously, the composition does not reach 100%?

part	m3/GJ	l/kWh
63.65%	0.086	0.31	Biomass
Biomass	1.24%	24.2	87.12	(Netherlands)
Coal	0.17%	0.164	0.59
Wind	9.56%	0	0.00
Solar	4.29%	0.265	0.95
Hydro	10.11%	22.3	80.28
Gas	5.58%	0.109	0.39
Fuel oil	0.33%	1.058	3.81
	94,93%		9,47

Nevertheless, the use of this study to calculate the water footprint in Nos Gestes Climat is questionable insofar as this study does not use the AWARE method to calculate the water footprint. This result should therefore be updated as soon as possible.

In addition, through Ecobalyse, we have had access to more recent data on the water footprint of the electricity mix (Ecoinvent), but publication agreements for non-aggregated data such as this do not allow us to use them for the time being.