The ADEME ( “Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie” ; or Agency for Environment and Energy Conservation ; an official body depending from the French ministries of Environment and Industry ; website ) urged last week French people to decrease their electricity consumption.
This is done after that our country has seen a two percent increase in its electricity consumption in 2006. Meantime, the industrial sector decreased its electricity consumption.
The responsible for the reported raise is the residential sector with its ever increasing amount of appliances.
Albeit French electricity is mostly clean and greenhouse gases free (thanks to 78 percent of nuclear origin and 10 percent due to hydro power), the French Government wants to decrease its electricity consumption in order to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol.
France already achieved the Kyoto Protocol goals, and this well before the 2012 deadline.
The specific use of electricity (comprising among others TV sets, DVD players, hi-fi systems, computers or vacuum cleaners) has been increasing steadily since 1990. In France, this type of electricity consumption indeed rose by 75 percent since 1990. It now accounts for 20 percent of electricity use of the residential sector. (Source : ADEME)
More than 25 percent of primary housings are heated via electricity, and this constitutes a French specificity. This is due to the fact that the French Government pushed households to use clean and cheap electricity that is solely created in France, instead of relying on foreign expensive fossil fuels.
To my point of view, a great way to decrease France electricity consumption would be to insulate all housings, including the ones that are relying on electricity. Between the average energy needed to heat a place in France and what can be done with existing technologies, a factor four is observed. This means that insulating in a very effective way all French housings would lead to huge savings for both energy and money.
You will be able to find soon more information on this topic in the data section of this website. (Energy conservation topic)