3. Energy selection criteria

3.1 General issues

Choosing an energy source is not an end in itself.

It is indeed a service or use, such as heating a building or producing domestic hot water, that is ultimately sought, energy being merely a means of ensuring this service or use. In the case of competitive uses (as opposed to captive uses, which can only be supplied by a single energy source, such as electricity for lighting), a third variable comes into play in the decision-making criteria: the equipment that will enable the energy to be used to meet the need to provide the service.

The choice of energy will therefore initially be closely linked to three factors:

• the nature of the service for which the energy will be...