The external costs of electricity

This article presents an overview of the ExtrenE project (external costs of electricity) of the European Commission (EC). The damage caused by pollution has been calculated through analyses of the impact pathways which involve an analysis of the emission - dispersion - dose-response function - monetary estimation chain. The results are introduced for various cycles of combustible fuels (with several technological variants), indicating the confidence intervals. The cost of the damage is particularly high for coal. For example, for the coal-fired power stations in France (with the emission levels of 1995) it is approximately equal to the sales price of electricity. For natural gas, the cost of damage is approximately one-third that of coal. On the other hand, the damage costs for nuclear fuel and most forms of renewable energy are low, at a maximum just a few percent of the electricity price. The greatest part of these costs arises from health impact, particularly premature death. In order to avoid the controversy inherent in making a monetary assessment of mortality, especially if this is imposed upon future generations, the reduction in life expectancy due to the various combustible cycles is also indicated and the risks of nuclear energy are put into perspective via several comparisons. (authors)