ETA 2021 Strategic Plan - Flipbook - Page 30
The Challenge
Water–Energy Nexus
Strategic Initiative
Ten-Year Goal
Demonstrate an integrated system of nontraditional water
treatment and renewable energy generation sources, and
define the feasibility and optimization paths for development of
full-scale desalination system(s) with significant cost reductions.
Drought, population growth, energy use, land use,
socioeconomic changes, and a shifting climate increase
water demand and exacerbate pressure on water and
energy infrastructure. Though the market has already
partially responded to these challenges through
adjustments in water and energy management practices
and policies, additional action is needed to diversify
sources and increase resilience of those systems.
Historically, interactions between energy and water
have been considered on a regional or technology-bytechnology basis. Despite their interdependency, energy
and water systems have been developed, managed,
and regulated independently. This approach has proven
particularly ineffective in power generation (both
traditional and renewable), manufacturing, mining,
agriculture, and large urban systems.
The U.S. per capita water footprint is higher than that of
other industrialized countries. California’s agricultural
sector has suffered tremendously from periodic prolonged
droughts, and it is in dire need of new water sources,
water recycling schemes, adequate water treatment
technologies and water–energy systems assessment tools.
Persistent stress on water resources requires continued
investment in new technologies and advanced analytics
to utilize enormous water reserves from traditional and
nontraditional sources. Furthermore, the emergence of
information technologies has opened this traditionally
tech-conservative sector to modern technology and
innovation on an unprecedented scale.
Energy and water systems in the United States are often
siloed from other actors within and between these two
critical sectors. Both water and energy providers operate
in highly dynamic environments, with rapidly expanding
options for generating usable resources (e.g., renewables
for energy, desalination for water); evolving demand
patterns (energy efficiency and electrification for energy,
water conservation); deteriorating, under-resourced
infrastructure; and a changing climate that will affect
supplies and demands. Each driver will act with a different
magnitude and rate and will have different impacts on
people and industries, depending on local characteristics.
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