Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The energy-water nexus: Managing water in an energy-constrained world
http://www.earthmagazine.org/article/energy-water-nexus-managing-water-energy-constrained-world[font face=Serif][font size=5]The energy-water nexus: Managing water in an energy-constrained world[/font]
[font size=3]Water can be tricky. With too little, crops die, industries move away, power plants fail, ecosystems suffer and people go thirsty. With too much, floods ruin infrastructure, destroy crops, spread waterborne diseases, and disrupt flows of clean water, wastewater, power and transportation. We want water at the right time and in the right place because moving and storing water require effort. We also want it at the right quality and the right temperature. Saline water, brackish water and polluted water are abundant but costly to treat. Water that’s too warm won’t cool power plants effectively and can damage ecosystems, while water that’s too cold can burst pipes and damage infrastructure.
Water’s capriciousness, however, can be tempered — with energy. If we had unlimited and perfectly clean energy (to mitigate environmental impacts) at our disposal, we could desalinate the ocean, providing enough potable water for everyone, everywhere. We could build pipelines to move water from where it is abundant to where it is scarce. We could build adequate sanitation infrastructure in communities that lack it so that raw sewage does not flow into freshwater ecosystems and cause sickness and eutrophication. We could build more storage reservoirs so that water could be collected in times of excess to be used in times of shortage.
Of course, we do not have unlimited energy and what we do have isn’t perfectly clean, and consequently, energy has become a constraining factor on our management of water issues.
The corollary is also true: Just as energy constraints become water constraints, in many regions, water has become a constraining factor on the energy supply. Power plant operators sometimes don’t have access to enough water to build new power generation facilities using conventional designs. And they face environmental constraints on the temperature of cooling water that is discharged into local streams based on limits established to protect fish and ecosystems. Water can also be a constraining factor in extracting energy sources such as in oil and gas production, which can use tremendous amounts of water.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=3]Water can be tricky. With too little, crops die, industries move away, power plants fail, ecosystems suffer and people go thirsty. With too much, floods ruin infrastructure, destroy crops, spread waterborne diseases, and disrupt flows of clean water, wastewater, power and transportation. We want water at the right time and in the right place because moving and storing water require effort. We also want it at the right quality and the right temperature. Saline water, brackish water and polluted water are abundant but costly to treat. Water that’s too warm won’t cool power plants effectively and can damage ecosystems, while water that’s too cold can burst pipes and damage infrastructure.
Water’s capriciousness, however, can be tempered — with energy. If we had unlimited and perfectly clean energy (to mitigate environmental impacts) at our disposal, we could desalinate the ocean, providing enough potable water for everyone, everywhere. We could build pipelines to move water from where it is abundant to where it is scarce. We could build adequate sanitation infrastructure in communities that lack it so that raw sewage does not flow into freshwater ecosystems and cause sickness and eutrophication. We could build more storage reservoirs so that water could be collected in times of excess to be used in times of shortage.
Of course, we do not have unlimited energy and what we do have isn’t perfectly clean, and consequently, energy has become a constraining factor on our management of water issues.
The corollary is also true: Just as energy constraints become water constraints, in many regions, water has become a constraining factor on the energy supply. Power plant operators sometimes don’t have access to enough water to build new power generation facilities using conventional designs. And they face environmental constraints on the temperature of cooling water that is discharged into local streams based on limits established to protect fish and ecosystems. Water can also be a constraining factor in extracting energy sources such as in oil and gas production, which can use tremendous amounts of water.
…[/font][/font]
