Abstract
In 2011, the state of Texas experienced the lowest annual rainfall on record1, with similar droughts affecting East Africa, China and Australia. Climate change is expected to further increase the likelihood and severity of future droughts2. Simultaneously, population and industrial growth increases demand for drought-stressed water resources3 and energy, including electricity. In the US, nearly half of water withdrawals are for electricity generation4, much of which comes from greenhouse gas emitting fossil fuel combustion. The result is a three-way tension among efforts to meet growing energy demands while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water withdrawals, a critical issue within the so-called water–energy nexus. We focus on this interaction within the electric sector by using a generation expansion planning model to explore the trade-offs. We show that large reductions in CO2 emissions would probably increase water withdrawals for electricity generation in the absence of limits on water usage, and that simultaneous restriction of CO2 emissions and water withdrawals requires a different mix of energy technologies and higher costs than one would plan to reduce either CO2 or water alone.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank M. Webber and A. Stillwell for helpful comments. We gratefully acknowledge support from the US National Science Foundation grant number 835414, from the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program, Integrated Assessment Research Program, Grant No. DE-SC0005171, from the Martin Family Foundation, and from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
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All authors contributed extensively to this work. M.W. conceived the experiments and wrote much of the manuscript. P.D. performed the analysis, and contributed to the manuscript writing. B.P. developed the underlying model used and contributed to the analysis and the manuscript writing.
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Webster, M., Donohoo, P. & Palmintier, B. Water–CO2 trade-offs in electricity generation planning. Nature Clim Change 3, 1029–1032 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2032
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2032
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