The Net Zero Game

A teaching model of France in 2050. You drive transport, building heating and industry against emission targets and against the physical constraints that make electrification a trade-off rather than a free win — the winter electricity peak, and the biogas, biofuel and biomass the country can actually supply.

By Robin Girard, MINES Paris — PSL.

Play the current version — v0.36.

It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, and you can save a scenario to a file and load it back on another machine.

There are provisional editions for other countries — the same model, national data that has not been reviewed yet: Deutschland, España, United Kingdom. The header of any edition switches between them, and between English and French.

Why it is worth checking

Every formula is declared in a YAML file rather than buried in a spreadsheet cell, and every assumption carries its value, its bounds, its provenance and its sources. The engine that runs in the browser, the annex the application displays and a Python checker are all compiled from those same files, and the build fails if the two engines disagree — so a value shown and a value used cannot differ.

The application has a Controversy tab naming the assumptions that are argued over, and a Contribute tab for telling us what is wrong. Both are the point: if a number looks wrong to you, that is a contribution.

Source code, including the model and its sources: git.persee.minesparis.psl.eu/energy-alternatives/The-net-zero-game

Versions

Each minor release keeps its own permanent link, so a scenario shared with a class still opens against the model it was built on.

Page updated 2026-10-04.