Energy-water nexus of wind power in China: The balancing act between CO2 emissions and water consumption

Li, Xin; Feng, Kuishuang; Siu, Yim Ling; Hubacek, Klaus

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2012.02.054

Cited by 149 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…This is mainly due to the systems boundary cut-off, as other 451 studies only took direct water consumption into account while indirect water consumption, such 452 as water consumption in agricultural production, was neglected. For wind power, our calculation 453 is slightly lower than the finding from Li et al (2012) [44], which may be due to using different 454 methods. Li et al (2012) applied an IO-based LCA, while this study used an integrated hybrid 455 LCA approach.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 46%

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The energy and water nexus in Chinese electricity production: A hybrid life cycle analysis

Feng

Hubacek

Siu

et al. 2014

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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247

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13Between 2000 and 2010, China's electricity production had increased threefold and accounted 14 for 50% of domestic and 12% of global CO 2 emissions in 2010. Substantial changes in the 15 electricity fuel mix are urgently required to meet China's carbon intensity target of reducing CO 2 16 emissions by 40% -45% by 2020. Moreover, electricity production is the second largest 17 consumer of water in China, but water requirements vary significantly between different 18 electricity generation technologies. By integrating process-based life-cycle analysis (LCA) and 19 2 input-output analysis (IOA) and through tracking national supply chains, we have provided a 20 detailed account of total life-cycle carbon emissions (in g/kWh) and water consumption (in 21 liter/kWh) for eight electricity generation technologies -(pulverized) coal, gas, oil, hydro, 22 nuclear, wind, solar photovoltaic, and biomass. We have demonstrated that a shift to low carbon 23 renewable electricity generation technologies, i.e. wind, could potentially save more than 79% 24 of total life-cycle CO 2 emissions and more than 50% water consumption per kWh electricity 25 generation. Not only a reduction of coal use in China's electricity fuel mix canhelp mitigate 26 climate change, but it also alleviates water stress.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 46%

“…For wind power, our calculation 453 is slightly lower than the finding from Li et al (2012) [44], which may be due to using different 454 methods. Li et al (2012) applied an IO-based LCA, while this study used an integrated hybrid 455 LCA approach. 456…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 46%

The energy and water nexus in Chinese electricity production: A hybrid life cycle analysis

Feng

Hubacek

Siu

et al. 2014

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Self Cite

247

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For all the data sources used ( [6], [15], [64]- [74]) and for all indicators investigated, the estimates are based on a life cycle approach, i.e. all emissions or consumption from extraction to plant construction are considered.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Greece [64] and Luxembourg [65] direct data on recent industrial tariffs could be found. For all countries, uniform price distributions were assumed and their expected values are reported in Table 5.…”

Section: Water Energy and Ghg Input Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A wide set of existing literature and data sources ( [6], [15], [64]- [74]) are used to determine estimates for carbon emission, water consumption and energy consumption factors for each primary energy source; these estimates are combined with power generation mix data to obtain coherent carbon, water and energy indicators for each country. For all the data sources used ( [6], [15], [64]- [74]) and for all indicators investigated, the estimates are based on a life cycle approach, i.e.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water-energy and GHG nexus assessment of alternative heat recovery options in industry: A case study on electric steelmaking in Europe

Santin

Saro

2017

Energy

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In the last few years, the water-energy nexus concept has emerged as a global issue in the international research community. However, studies on European countries are relatively few, and often focused on the energy sector and agriculture, even though industry dominates water use in many European countries. Cooling purposes represent the main part of industrial water demand, and waste heat recovery is perceived as a main strategy to improve industrial resource efficiency. In this paper, we consider a real case study of low-temperature waste-heat recovery in an electric steelmaking industry and evaluate the impact of feasible interventions on primary energy and water consumption, as well as on CO2 equivalent emissions. Based on a Europe wide review of energy and water prices, of energy sources and corresponding resource efficiency indicators, a Monte Carlo model was developed to undertake a generalization of the case study to the EU-15. It was found that, in spite of common intuition, solutions with the lowest primary energy demand and the lowest CO2 equivalent emissions demonstrate the greatest water footprint. This is especially the case of southern European countries, where heat recovery projects with the highest water intensity are economically feasible due to high electricity and low water prices. As increasing carbon prices may exacerbate this phenomenon, inducing a switch to more water intensive technologies, policy instruments for supporting industrial energy efficiency or carbon emission reduction should be carefully designed.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Wind Power Generation System

Yang

Chen

2015

Handbook of Clean Energy Systems

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Wind power is experiencing an unprecedented development in China. It is regarded a clean energy alternative as no emissions are generated in electricity production process. However, the material‐intensive production of wind turbines is associated with environmental releases. Therefore, assessing the environmental impacts of wind power generation systems involves not only power production process but also all related processes. Life cycle assessment ( LCA ) considering all environmental emissions in the whole lifetime of the wind power generation system is proven a powerful tool to estimate the real environmental costs of wind power and can provide information for companies, local resident, and government officials about the environmental implications of wind power generation technology. A case of typical wind power generation system was shown to demonstrate the procedures of LCA . However, LCA in wind power generation systems in the current stage still has some issues to be solved, represented as time‐varying factors, vague definition of system boundary and standardization, and so on. In addition to improving life cycle analysis to make the assessment more precise and feasible, the scope of wind power generation should be extended to life cycle sustainability evaluation so as to give an overview of the wind power generation system and shed lights on development pathway design.

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Energy-water nexus of wind power in China: The balancing act between CO2 emissions and water consumption

Cited by 149 publications

References 33 publications

The energy and water nexus in Chinese electricity production: A hybrid life cycle analysis

The energy and water nexus in Chinese electricity production: A hybrid life cycle analysis

Water-energy and GHG nexus assessment of alternative heat recovery options in industry: A case study on electric steelmaking in Europe

Life Cycle Assessment of Wind Power Generation System

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