Chautagne is a 90 MW hydro power plant in Rhone-Alpes, France. It is operated by GDF-SUEZ. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 90,102 homes (estimated). It ranks #108 of 2,188 France power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1980, it is around 46 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 10.4% of France's electricity; the national grid averages 41 gCO₂/kWh (94.9% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1026743.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by GDF-SUEZ. All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 45.9°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 19% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 60/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
The #60 largest hydro power plant of 429 in France by capacity.
France has 429 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 19,506 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 45.879, 5.811 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
