Addressing the Energy-Water Nexus: A Blueprint for Action and Policy Agenda

Abstract

Executive SummaryIn simple terms, every drop of water saved in the U.S. saves energy, and every unit of energy saved saves water. That overlap has come to be known as the "energy-water nexus."For the past 30 years, strategies to conserve energy and increase the efficiency of energy use have been widely pursued. Similar efforts in the conservation and efficient use of water have occurred over the past 20plus years. However, the two communities have historically not worked together in a coherent, collaborative manner, and instead generally created separate but parallel efforts. These separate activities could realize significant benefits from coordination.Recognizing this need for collaborative actions, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Alliance for Water Efficiency (AWE) secured a grant from the Turner Foundation to bring these two communities together to establish a blueprint for future joint efforts and to envision a policy agenda that could drive actions at the federal, state, local, and watershed levels.This blueprint addresses three broad elements: policy/codes, research, and programs. In developing it, ACEEE and AWE have analyzed and consolidated contributions from approximately fifty individuals, many of whom participated in a full-day workshop in December 2010. The goal of this blueprint and policy agenda is to provide a framework for collaborative action, funding, and policy development.The blueprint further contains eight broad thematic elements, each including a number of action strategies, all of which will require complex collaborations among funding sources, advocates and nonprofit organizations, government agencies at every level, trade associations, energy and water utilities, consumer groups, business, regulatory agencies, universities, national laboratories, policymakers, and the U.S. Congress.By setting bold, innovative new directions that can begin immediately, the developers hope that this blueprint will change the way water and energy are used, measured, and managed, and change the relationships and actions of stake-holders, creating new, more active and visionary coalitions.

Energy Supply Using Nexus Approach for Attaining Sustainable Development Goal 7

“…The connection of these decisionmaking "silos" is typically a challenge to policy, though definitely not limited to the realm of the nexus (Aboelnga et al 2018, p. 6). The energy-water nexus has recently caught the attention of numerous policy and regulatory agencies (Macknick et al 2011;Mackres 2012). China's "Water Resources Management System" is an example of a policy role, to establish the "red line" for controlling water use efficiency, water resources development and utilization, and capping the total amount of water consumption at 700 billion cubic meters by 2030 (OECD 2015a, b).…”

A Mathematical Approach to Improve Energy-Water Nexus Reliability Using a Novel Multi-Stage Adjustable Fuzzy Robust Approach

“…In mathematical energy-water nexus planning, the aim is to offer a general model that generates energy decisions and water decisions while covering these two complex systems' interconnections. The energy-water nexus planning has been thoroughly studied via discussions of policies and regulations during the last fifty years [1,2,3,4]. The recent research in this area provided more accurate data for energy-water nexus planning (e.g., energy for water and water for energy) [5,6,7,8,9].…”

Energy and Water Interdependence and Integration of Systems

“…In one hand the water is used to mine, convert and refine the energy resources and in the other hand the fresh water was collected, treated and distributed by using energy, so there are a wide technologies and activities depending on water and energy, such as the cooling of power plants, generating energy from water, desalination, treatment of water and wastewater and reusing water [1][2][3][4]. There are many utilizations for energy in our life like generating steam in the power plants, treating water and waste water, heating and cooling buildings [5][6][7][8][9].…”