Water consumption from hydroelectricity in the United States

Grubert, Emily

doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2016.07.004

Cited by 68 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This work uses net evaporation values calculated for the United States, based on gross evaporation volumes calculated using a Penman-Monteith model less estimated evapotranspiration (ET) volumes associated with the most common landcover at proxy facility locations, based on National Land Cover Database mapping and landcover-specific ET coefficients. More discussion, and the full models, can be found in [32]. Hydropower thus has a broader range of possible consumptive water intensities than other resources in part because it can result in lower water consumption than would have otherwise occurred in a region, as when reservoirs replace water intensive land cover like wetlands.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To assess regional consumptive water intensity, we rely on a bottom up analysis of US electricity generation at the level of individual generators at power plants. Using federally reported data for grid-connected US generators with capacity greater than one megawatt [15,16] and recent studies of US consumptive water intensity by fuel [1,32] and generator type [11], we assign water consumption associated with the fuel (upstream of the plant) and direct use (at the PoG) to each generator. Then, we aggregate water consumption embedded in electricity over all reported generators and generation in a given eGRID region, using the eGRID 2016 boundaries [33].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Peer

Grubert

Sanders

2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…It seems to be a growing support to the net water consumption methodology as the proper approach in the calculation of the “true” water consumption from hydropower production (e.g., refs., ,). There are, however, clearly divergent scientific views on this, and the Water Footprint Manual prescribes using the gross evaporation values in water consumption assessments.…”

Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grubert applied a primary purpose based approach, which means that the primary purpose of the reservoir takes the full burden of the water losses. Grubert argues that other approaches, such as the volumetric approach, are not practical and it is difficult to find a single and consistent data source that can provide input data on all functions when carrying out system‐wide assessments, i.e., assessing the water consumption rates from a large number of plants within a region. Scherer and Pfister used a ranking method, which gave allocation rates from the number of functions and the specific rank number of hydropower production.…”

Section: Dilemmas Related To the Applied Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water Footprint of Hydropower Production—State of the Art and Methodological Challenges

2017

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energy production, which has boosted large-scale investments in solar, wind, and hydropower. [5] There is a growing understanding of the close relation between water and energy, sometimes entitled the waterenergy nexus. [6][7][8][9][10] Water is highly needed in the development of energy resources, and access to energy is a prerequisite in the provision of water services. According to ref.[10], primary energy production and power generation accounted for roughly 10% of total worldwide water withdrawals and around 3% of total water consumption in 2014, which corresponds to withdrawals of around 400 billion m 3 annually. Several regions now experience water stress, [11] and access to water might constrain the further development of energy sources.Production of hydropower is exclusively dependent on the availability of the local water resources, and reduction in the available water will immediately reduce the power production. Among the world's 45 000 registered large dams and reservoirs, [12] ≈75% are classified as single purpose, meaning that they are used exclusively for one specific purpose. [13] The most common single purpose is irrigation (47%), followed by hydropower (19%), water supply (11%), flood control (9%), and the remaining recreation, navigation, and "unclassified." Among the multipurpose reservoirs, serving two or more functions, which is ≈25% of the registered dams, irrigation is also the most frequent purpose. 61% of the registered multipurpose reservoirs have irrigation as one of several functions, followed by flood control (50%), water supply (44%), hydropower production (40%), recreation (30%), and navigation (6%).The world's reservoirs are expected to play an even more important role for the society in the future. Climate change might reduce the available water in arid areas of the world, increase the runoff in wet areas, and change the seasonality. Large developments of intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar power, can also increase the need for flexible energy production, [10] served by for instance by hydropower with reservoirs. [14] This paper aims at:1. Reviewing published estimates of water consumption from hydropower production. 2. Presenting the methodology applied, identify shortcomings and propose improvements.

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“…Basin scale S-Y analysis provides estimates on hypothetical storage capacity required to meet water demand, and hence, such analysis helps to identify the need for further infrastructure investments to cope with water stress on a global scale (Gaupp et al 2015). Even though previous analyses of both global and regional energy systems suggest that evaporative losses from reservoirs used for hydropower play a significant role in total consumptive water use (Fricko et al 2016, Grubert 2016, such evaporative impacts are missing from existing global-scale assessments of surface water reservoir potential that consider climate change. Increasing air temperatures and variable regional precipitation patterns associated with climate change will ultimately affect evaporation rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the potential for reservoirs to secure future surface water yields in the world’s largest river basins

Parkinson

Gidden

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Surface water reservoirs provide us with reliable water supply, hydropower generation, flood control and recreation services. Yet reservoirs also cause flow fragmentation in rivers and lead to flooding of upstream areas, thereby displacing existing land-use activities and ecosystems. Anticipated population growth and development coupled with climate change in many regions of the globe suggests a critical need to assess the potential for future reservoir capacity to help balance rising water demands with long-term water availability. Here, we assess the potential of large-scale reservoirs to provide reliable surface water yields while also considering environmental flows within 235 of the world's largest river basins. Maps of existing cropland and habitat conservation zones are integrated with spatially-explicit population and urbanization projections from the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to identify regions unsuitable for increasing water supply by exploiting new reservoir storage. Results show that even when maximizing the global reservoir storage to its potential limit (∼4.3-4.8 times the current capacity), firm yields would only increase by about 50% over current levels. However, there exist large disparities across different basins. The majority of river basins in North America are found to gain relatively little firm yield by increasing storage capacity, whereas basins in Southeast Asia display greater potential for expansion as well as proportional gains in firm yield under multiple uncertainties. Parts of Europe, the United States and South America show relatively low reliability of maintaining current firm yields under future climate change, whereas most of Asia and higher latitude regions display comparatively high reliability. Findings from this study highlight the importance of incorporating different factors, including human development, land-use activities, and climate change, over a time span of multiple decades and across a range of different scenarios when quantifying available surface water yields and the potential for reservoir expansion.

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Water consumption from hydroelectricity in the United States

Cited by 68 publications

References 24 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 Water Footprint of Hydropower Production—State of the Art and Methodological Challenges

Quantifying the potential for reservoirs to secure future surface water yields in the world’s largest river basins

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