IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2017i1p30-d124087.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of Future Water Use for Electricity Generation under Different Energy Development Scenarios in China

Author

Listed:
  • Lu Lin

    (Academy of Chinese Energy Strategy, China University of Petroleum—Beijing, Beijing 104429, China)

  • Yongqin David Chen

    (Department of Geography and Resource Management, and Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

Water scarcity and uneven water demand in regional electricity generation pose substantial challenges to the sustainable development of water resources and electricity production in China. Based on the latest official policy of China’s electricity development, i.e., the 13th Five-Year Plan of electricity development, this study quantified annual water withdrawal and consumption for future electricity generation in China from 2015 to 2030. This study simulated a three-prong approach to impacting water use for electricity development, i.e., updating the cooling technology mix, increasing non-thermal power generation and relocating thermal power plants to the west. The results showed that solutions to relieve water stress caused by electricity production entail major trade-offs. Annual water withdrawal and consumption were projected to exceed 63.75 and 8.30 billion m 3 by 2030, up approximately 14% and 21% of those in 2015, respectively, if China does not implement any new water and energy policies. Replacing once-through cooling systems with closed-loop cooling systems would decrease national water withdrawal remarkably but increase water consumption. The west-centered spatial distribution of thermoelectric power generation would reduce water use at the national level; however, it will largely increase water stress in northern and northwestern China. Thus, relieving the stress of growing electricity demand on water resources in China requires comprehensive measures and quantitative estimates.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu Lin & Yongqin David Chen, 2017. "Evaluation of Future Water Use for Electricity Generation under Different Energy Development Scenarios in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:30-:d:124087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/30/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/30/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Xinzhu & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia & Kummu, Matti & Varis, Olli, 2016. "The vulnerability of thermoelectric power generation to water scarcity in China: Current status and future scenarios for power planning and climate change," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 444-455.
    2. Yu, Fanxian & Chen, Jining & Sun, Fu & Zeng, Siyu & Wang, Can, 2011. "Trend of technology innovation in China's coal-fired electricity industry under resource and environmental constraints," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1586-1599, March.
    3. Wu, X.D. & Chen, G.Q., 2017. "Energy and water nexus in power generation: The surprisingly high amount of industrial water use induced by solar power infrastructure in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 125-136.
    4. Wan, Liyang & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2016. "Impacts on water consumption of power sector in major emitting economies under INDC and longer term mitigation scenarios: An input-output based hybrid approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 26-39.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Jie & Huang, Yijing & Takeuchi, Kenji, 2022. "Does drought increase carbon emissions? Evidence from Southwestern China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Eduardo de la Rocha Camba & Fontina Petrakopoulou, 2020. "Earth-Cooling Air Tunnels for Thermal Power Plants: Initial Design by CFD Modelling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    3. Fontina Petrakopoulou & Marina Olmeda-Delgado, 2019. "Studying the Reduction of Water Use in Integrated Solar Combined-Cycle Plants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-27, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Krarti, Moncef & Aldubyan, Mohammad, 2021. "Mitigation analysis of water consumption for power generation and air conditioning of residential buildings: Case study of Saudi Arabia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    2. Mu, Yaqian & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2018. "The economic impact of China's INDC: Distinguishing the roles of the renewable energy quota and the carbon market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2955-2966.
    3. Wu, X.D. & Chen, G.Q., 2017. "Energy and water nexus in power generation: The surprisingly high amount of industrial water use induced by solar power infrastructure in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 125-136.
    4. Wu, X.D. & Ji, Xi & Li, Chaohui & Xia, X.H. & Chen, G.Q., 2019. "Water footprint of thermal power in China: Implications from the high amount of industrial water use by plant infrastructure of coal-fired generation system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 452-461.
    5. Gjorgiev, Blaže & Sansavini, Giovanni, 2018. "Electrical power generation under policy constrained water-energy nexus," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 568-579.
    6. Wang, Saige & Fath, Brian & Chen, Bin, 2019. "Energy–water nexus under energy mix scenarios using input–output and ecological network analyses," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 827-839.
    7. Srinivasan, Shweta & Kholod, Nazar & Chaturvedi, Vaibhav & Ghosh, Probal Pratap & Mathur, Ritu & Clarke, Leon & Evans, Meredydd & Hejazi, Mohamad & Kanudia, Amit & Koti, Poonam Nagar & Liu, Bo & Parik, 2018. "Water for electricity in India: A multi-model study of future challenges and linkages to climate change mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 673-684.
    8. Zhou, Yuanchun & Ma, Mengdie & Gao, Peiqi & Xu, Qiming & Bi, Jun & Naren, Tuya, 2019. "Managing water resources from the energy - water nexus perspective under a changing climate: A case study of Jiangsu province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 380-390.
    9. Wang, Can & Zheng, Xinzhu & Cai, Wenjia & Gao, Xue & Berrill, Peter, 2017. "Unexpected water impacts of energy-saving measures in the iron and steel sector: Tradeoffs or synergies?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1119-1127.
    10. Wu, X.D. & Guo, J.L. & Chen, G.Q., 2018. "The striking amount of carbon emissions by the construction stage of coal-fired power generation system in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 358-369.
    11. Wang, Can & Ye, Minhua & Cai, Wenjia & Chen, Jining, 2014. "The value of a clear, long-term climate policy agenda: A case study of China’s power sector using a multi-region optimization model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 276-288.
    12. Jiang, Suqin & Chen, Zun & Shan, Li & Chen, Xinyu & Wang, Haikun, 2017. "Committed CO2 emissions of China's coal-fired power generators from 1993 to 2013," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 295-302.
    13. Qian Zhou & Helmut Yabar & Takeshi Mizunoya & Yoshiro Higano, 2017. "Evaluation of Integrated Air Pollution and Climate Change Policies: Case Study in the Thermal Power Sector in Chongqing City, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-17, September.
    14. Xiao, Zhengyan & Yao, Meiqin & Tang, Xiaotong & Sun, Luxi, 2019. "Identifying critical supply chains: An input-output analysis for Food-Energy-Water Nexus in China," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 392(C), pages 31-37.
    15. Guangkui Liu & Xu Yang & Xisheng Yang & Kui Liang & Dong An & Di Wu & Xiaohan Ren, 2022. "Typical Damage Prediction and Reliability Analysis of Superheater Tubes in Power Station Boilers Based on Multisource Data Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, January.
    16. Lubega, William Naggaga & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2018. "Maintaining electric grid reliability under hydrologic drought and heat wave conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 538-549.
    17. Schreifels, Jeremy J. & Fu, Yale & Wilson, Elizabeth J., 2012. "Sulfur dioxide control in China: policy evolution during the 10th and 11th Five-year Plans and lessons for the future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 779-789.
    18. Liu, Yitong & Chen, Bin & Wei, Wendong & Shao, Ling & Li, Zhi & Jiang, Weizhong & Chen, Guoqian, 2020. "Global water use associated with energy supply, demand and international trade of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    19. Qin, Ying & Curmi, Elizabeth & Kopec, Grant M. & Allwood, Julian M. & Richards, Keith S., 2015. "China's energy-water nexus – assessment of the energy sector's compliance with the “3 Red Lines” industrial water policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 131-143.
    20. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2018. "Impact of quota decline scheme of emission trading in China: A dynamic recursive CGE model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 190-203.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:30-:d:124087. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.