Correction to: Nature Energy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-018-0266-1, published online 22 October 2018.

In the version of this Analysis originally published, the authors mistakenly omitted to include four references relevant to the work. New refs 11, 45, 52 and 53 (listed below) have been added to the text and the reference list, and the other references have been renumbered to reflect this. The following sentences have been edited:

Reference 11 has been added to the sentence: “The electricity–water nexus showcases a reliance paradigm of electricity on water resources10,11.”

Reference 45 has been added to the sentence: “In an attempt to define approximate end-use water footprints of electricity, other literature analyses used a geographical radius from the city43, an interconnect or grid scale44,45 or state geopolitical boundaries25,41,46–48.”

The following sentence has been added: “Studies in the United States have estimated virtual blue water transfers due to electricity generation at a county scale52 and in the Colorado River Basin specifically53.” It was added after the sentence: “A few studies in China evaluated embedded water of electricity transfers, static water consumption factors, and fixed geographical boundaries50,51.”

New references:

11. Grubert, E. & Sanders, K. T. Water use in the United States energy system: A national assessment and unit process inventory of water consumption and withdrawals. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 6695–6703 (2018).

45. Ruddell, B. L., Adams, E. A., Rushforth, R. & Tidwell, V. C. Embedded resource accounting for coupled natural–human systems: An application to water resource impacts of the western US electrical energy trade. Water. Resources Res. 50, 7957–7972 (2014).

52. Rushforth, R. R. & Ruddell, B. L. A spatially detailed blue water footprint of the United States economy. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 22, 3007–3032 (2018).

53. Kelley, S. & Pasqualetti, M. Virtual water from a vanishing river. J. Am. Water Works Ass. 105, E471–E479 (2013).