Analysis of the Belgian electricity mix used in environmental life cycle assessment studies: how reliable is the ecoinvent 3.1 mix?

The current contribution gives insight into the Belgian low-voltage electricity mix, used in environmental life cycle assessment studies and modelled following the attributional and consequential approach. Is the electricity mix for Belgium, as available in the life cycle inventory database ecoinvent 3.1, representative for the current electricity mix and the future developments? Studies on this research topic are missing in the literature, especially for this particular geographical and time frame. In this study, data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity and the Federal Planning Bureau have been used to model the historical and future Belgian low-voltage electricity mix. The environmental impact is analysed for different scenarios: attributional and consequential modelling, historic and outlook data, the domestic electricity mix and the extended mix with import from other countries. The life cycle inventory database ecoinvent 3.1 and the life cycle impact assessment method ReCiPe version 1.12 are used. It was found that the historical attributional mixes are well represented by the ecoinvent 3.1 mix. All other scenario mixes significantly differ from the mixes in ecoinvent 3.1.