Mapping water consumption for energy production around the Pacific Rim

Tidwell, Vincent Carroll; Moreland, Barbie

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094008

Cited by 28 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…A final general finding is that most (80%-95%) water consumption for electricity is fresh ( figure 5). Consistent with previous findings [35], this reliance on freshwater suggests that the electricity sector competes with other freshwater users (e.g. agriculture, ecosystems, and municipalities) for water access.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

A regional assessment of the water embedded in the US electricity system

Peer

Grubert

Sanders

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Water consumption from electricity systems can be large, and it varies greatly by region. As electricity systems change, understanding the implications for water demand is important, given differential water availability. This letter presents regional water consumption and consumptive intensities for the United States electric grid by region using a 2014 base year, based on the 26 regions in the Environmental Protection Agency's Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database. Estimates encompass operational (i.e. not embodied in fixed assets) water consumption from fuel extraction through conversion, calculated as the sum of induced water consumption for processes upstream of the point of generation (PoG) and water consumed at the PoG. Absolute water consumption and consumptive intensity is driven by thermal power plant cooling requirements. Regional consumption intensities vary by roughly a factor of 20. This variability is largely attributed to water consumption upstream of the PoG, particularly evaporation from reservoirs associated with hydroelectricity. Solar and wind generation, which are expected to continue to grow rapidly, consume very little water and could drive lower water consumption over time. As the electricity grid continues to change in response to policy, economic, and climatic drivers, understanding potential impacts on local water resources can inform changes.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

A regional assessment of the water embedded in the US electricity system

Peer

Grubert

Sanders

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Figure 9 shows the total energy related water consumption mapped over regional water risk in China. Ten sectors are involved in the analysis of water consumption on energy production, including the biofuel feedstock production, energy processing including biofuels and oil, energy production including oil, gas, coal, uranium, and unconventional oil and gas, hydroelectric and thermoelectric power (Tidwell and Moreland 2016). The watershed and energyrelated water consumption locations have high energywater risk.…”

Section: Analysis Of Potential Water Resources Risks In Energy Production Of Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are in total 1630 watersheds in China, 764 of which have water risks. Regarding the energy-related water consumption, there are 440 watersheds and 54% of them have energy-water risks (Tidwell and Moreland 2016). Generally, it can be concluded that China has a high risk of water consumption related with energy production.…”

Section: Analysis Of Potential Water Resources Risks In Energy Production Of Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

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The sustainability assessment of CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and the conversion of cropland to forestland program (CCFP) in the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) framework towards China’s carbon neutrality by 2060

et al. 2021

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The global warming induced by the emission of greenhouse gases, especially the carbon dioxide, has become the global climate and environmental issues. China has been working in the CO2 emission reduction and carbon sinks with the purpose of becoming the carbon-neutral country by 2060. The CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies and the reforestation technology represented by the Conversion of Cropland to Forestland Program (CCFP) have great potential for sinking CO2 emission. However, the trade-off among CCFP, CCS/CCUS and Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus are not well evaluated. In this paper, the remote-sensing data are collected and used to evaluate the sustainability of CCFP by analyzing the variation of land use and land cover (LULC), crop production, etc. The results show that 13.29% of the cropland in 2001 vanished and converted to grassland (8.3%), mosaic cropland (3%) and urban land (0.98%) in 2019, demonstrating that the CCFP is successful in both WEF nexus and carbon sink. The total crop production has increased around 50% between 2001 and 2019, implying that the CCFP will not lead to the food risk during the conversion of croplands into other types of land in China. A sustainable implementation of CCFP and other environmental Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) policies in 2019–2060 could reach an estimated total growth of 7.462 billion m3 in comparison of that in 2018 and the total plantation forest stock of about 10.852 billion m3 in 2060, with a corresponding minimum CO2 sink of 2.90 billion tons in 2060. The estimated peak of net equivalent CO2 emissions before 2030 is about 11.0 billion tons and could not be reduced to zero by 2060 without the large-scale application of the CCS/CCUS technologies as geological sequestration of CO2. Besides, the application of CCS/CCUS can be beneficial for WEF, e.g., through replacing the water by CO2 during energy production, especially in the shale gas production in the regions with high water risks in China. In one word, CCS/CCUS and CCFP are two decided pathways of carbon sequestration and should be systematically applied to achieve China’s carbon neutrality by 2060.

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“…Researchers have published a series of spatially-explicit studies to determine where energy production is needed to meet water demand in the western United States and globally [13][14][15]. These studies relied on top-down aggregated estimates of water use from the US Geological Survey and do not calculate energy embedded in water consumed in a particular location.…”

Section: Contributors To Electricity MIXmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the electricity intensity of evolving water supply mixes: the case of California’s water network

Stokes-Draut

Taptich

Kavvada

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Climate change is making water supply less predictable, even unreliable, in parts of the world. Urban water providers, especially in already arid areas, will need to diversify their water resources by switching to alternative sources and negotiating trading agreements to create more resilient and interdependent networks. The increasing complexity of these networks will likely require more operational electricity. The ability to document, visualize, and analyze water-energy relationships will be critical to future water planning, especially as data needed to conduct the analyses become increasingly available. We have developed a network model and decision-support tool, WESTNet, to perform these tasks. Herein, WESTNet was used to analyze a model of California's 2010 urban water network as well as the projected system for 2020 and 2030. Results for California's ten hydrologic regions show that the average number of water sources per utility and total electricity consumption for supplying water will increase in spite of decreasing per-capita water consumption. Electricity intensity (kWh m −3 ) will increase in arid regions of the state due to shifts to alternative water sources such as indirect potable water reuse, desalination, and water transfers. In wetter, typically less populated, regions, reduced water demand for electricity-intensive supplies will decrease the electricity intensity of the water supply mix, though total electricity consumption will increase due to urban population growth. The results of this study provide a baseline for comparing current and potential innovations to California's water system. The WESTNet tool can be applied to diverse water systems in any geographic region at a variety of scales to evaluate an array of network-dependent water-energy parameters.

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Mapping water consumption for energy production around the Pacific Rim

Cited by 28 publications

References 8 publications

A regional assessment of the water embedded in the US electricity system

A regional assessment of the water embedded in the US electricity system

The sustainability assessment of CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and the conversion of cropland to forestland program (CCFP) in the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) framework towards China’s carbon neutrality by 2060

Evaluating the electricity intensity of evolving water supply mixes: the case of California’s water network

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