IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v2y2017i8d10.1038_nenergy.2017.114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate change and the vulnerability of electricity generation to water stress in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Behrens

    (Leiden University College The Hague
    Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University)

  • Michelle T. H. van Vliet

    (Water Systems and Global change, Wageningen University)

  • Tijmen Nanninga

    (Leiden University College The Hague)

  • Brid Walsh

    (Leiden University College The Hague)

  • João F. D. Rodrigues

    (Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University)

Abstract

Thermoelectric generation requires large amounts of water for cooling. Recent warm periods have led to curtailments in generation, highlighting concerns about security of supply. Here we assess EU-wide climate impacts for 1,326 individual thermoelectric plants and 818 water basins in 2020 and 2030. We show that, despite policy goals and a decrease in electricity-related water withdrawal, the number of regions experiencing some reduction in power availability due to water stress rises from 47 basins to 54 basins between 2014 and 2030, with further plants planned for construction in stressed basins. We examine the reasons for these pressures by including water demand for other uses. The majority of vulnerable basins lie in the Mediterranean region, with further basins in France, Germany and Poland. We investigate four adaptations, finding that increased future seawater cooling eases some pressures. This highlights the need for an integrated, basin-level approach in energy and water policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Behrens & Michelle T. H. van Vliet & Tijmen Nanninga & Brid Walsh & João F. D. Rodrigues, 2017. "Climate change and the vulnerability of electricity generation to water stress in the European Union," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(8), pages 1-7, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:2:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1038_nenergy.2017.114
    DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2017.114
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nenergy2017114
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nenergy.2017.114?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Yao An & Lin Zhang, 2023. "The Thirst for Power: The Impacts of Water Availability on Electricity Generation in China," The Energy Journal, , vol. 44(2), pages 205-240, March.
    2. Voisin, Nathalie & Dyreson, Ana & Fu, Tao & O'Connell, Matt & Turner, Sean W.D. & Zhou, Tian & Macknick, Jordan, 2020. "Impact of climate change on water availability and its propagation through the Western U.S. power grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    3. Oikonomou, Konstantinos & Tarroja, Brian & Kern, Jordan & Voisin, Nathalie, 2022. "Core process representation in power system operational models: Gaps, challenges, and opportunities for multisector dynamics research," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PC).
    4. Yuan, Rong & Rodrigues, João F.D. & Tukker, Arnold & Behrens, Paul, 2018. "The impact of the expansion in non-fossil electricity infrastructure on China’s carbon emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 1994-2008.
    5. Xu, Zhongwen & Tan, Shiqi & Yao, Liming & Lv, Chengwei, 2024. "Exploring water-saving potentials of US electric power transition while thirsting for carbon neutrality," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    6. 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.
    7. Li, Haoran & Cui, Xueqin & Hui, Jingxuan & He, Gang & Weng, Yuwei & Nie, Yaoyu & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2021. "Catchment-level water stress risk of coal power transition in China under 2℃/1.5℃ targets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    8. Klaas Lenaerts & Simone Tagliapietra & Guntram B. Wolff, 2022. "How Can the European Union Adapt to Climate Change?," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 57(5), pages 314-321, September.
    9. Jin, Yi & Scherer, Laura & Sutanudjaja, Edwin H. & Tukker, Arnold & Behrens, Paul, 2022. "Climate change and CCS increase the water vulnerability of China's thermoelectric power fleet," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    10. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2021. "The energy-water nexus of China’s interprovincial and seasonal electric power transmission," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    11. Li, Huanhuan & Xu, Beibei & Riasi, Alireza & Szulc, Przemyslaw & Chen, Diyi & M'zoughi, Fares & Skjelbred, Hans Ivar & Kong, Jiehong & Tazraei, Pedram, 2019. "Performance evaluation in enabling safety for a hydropower generation system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1628-1642.
    12. Zhou, Yang & Han, Jingcheng & Zhou, Ya, 2024. "Synergizing carbon trading and water management for urban sustainability: A city-level multi-objective planning framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    13. Yan, Xia & Jie, Wu & Minjun, Shi & Shouyang, Wang & Zhuoying, Zhang, 2022. "China's regional imbalance in electricity demand, power and water pricing - From the perspective of electricity-related virtual water transmission," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    14. Zhu, Wenjing & Duan, Cuncun & Chen, Bin, 2024. "Energy efficiency assessment of wastewater treatment plants in China based on multiregional input–output analysis and data envelopment analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    15. Valeria Jana Schwanitz & August Wierling & Payal Shah, 2017. "Assessing the Impact of Renewable Energy on Regional Sustainability—A Comparative Study of Sogn og Fjordane (Norway) and Okinawa (Japan)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-29, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natene:v:2:y:2017:i:8:d:10.1038_nenergy.2017.114. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.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.