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Water–energy modelling: Adaptation to water scarcity

Nature Energy volume 1, Article number: 16004 (2016) Cite this article

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Combined water and power models are important to predict how changes in one resource will impact the other. A new global assessment of hydropower and thermoelectric power plants predicts future vulnerabilities arising from climate-change-induced water constraints and tests possible adaptation options.

Nowadays, over 90% of global electricity is generated from hydropower and thermoelectric power1, but these technologies depend on water availability as an energy source for hydropower, and water temperature for cooling of thermoelectric power plants. However, climate change is expected to decrease overall water availability in many parts of the world2–4 and to increase its temperature5,6, compromising future energy security. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Michelle van Vliet and colleagues7 at Wageningen University and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis quantify the potential impact of climate change on present water-dependent electricity supply by using a coupled hydrological–electricity modelling approach.

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Figure 1: Global changes in usable power plant capacity.

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  1. Silvio J. Pereira-Cardenal is at COWI A/S, Parallelvej 2, Kongens Lyngby 2800, Denmark.,

    Silvio J. Pereira-Cardenal

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  1. Silvio J. Pereira-Cardenal
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Correspondence to Silvio J. Pereira-Cardenal.

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Pereira-Cardenal, S. Water–energy modelling: Adaptation to water scarcity. Nat Energy 1, 16004 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.4

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