Electricity generation is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide (CO2), in the Burkinabe energy sector. Until now, Burkina Faso has used the default emission factors provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess its CO2 emissions from electricity generation, particularly in the context of the National Communications on Climate Change, due to the lack of country-specific emission factors. This study presents the assessment of CO2 emission factors of electricity generation in Burkina Faso. The Burkinabe National Electricity Company was chosen as the scope of the study. The evaluation of emission factors for combustion is based on the experimental/calculation method through an analysis of the fuels consumed by the thermal power plants. After evaluating a CO2 emission factor of 76,903.31 kg/TJ for the combustion of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and 73,524.54 kg/TJ for the combustion of Distillate Diesel Oil (DDO), we evaluate the CO2 emissions of electricity production at 579.83 Gg. The CO2 emission factor for thermal generation is estimated at 0.663 kg/kW h and that of the electricity generation mix is 0.569 kg/kW h. The use of renewable energies in electricity generation avoided 16.7% of CO2 emissions in 2018. Also, there is a decrease in the emission factor of the generation mix with the increase in the share of renewables in the generation mix.

power generation, greenhouse gases, emission factor, carbon dioxide, thermal generation