This talk provides an overview of DOE’s recently-released report: The Water-Energy Nexus: Challenges and Opportunities. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the water-energy nexus and identifies challenges and opportunities across the nexus. Energy and water systems interact physically in many settings, including electricity generation, oil and gas production, bioenergy production, water treatment, and commercial and industrial facilities. The nexus will be impacted by future trends in climate and environment, energy technologies, and population. Decision-making across the nexus takes place in a complex landscape, affected by water and energy policies at the national, regional, state, and local levels.
DOE’s strengths in technology and modeling R&D can be applied to address challenges within the nexus. Advances in cooling technologies, treatment of nontraditional saline water, wastewater treatment, bioenergy production, and building systems, among others, can help make energy systems more water efficient, water systems more energy efficient, and both systems more resilient. An integrated approach to modeling can better reflect system interactions and interdependencies under climate change, population, technologies, economics and other dynamic factors. There is also value to connecting data sets to better inform decision-making.
Currently, DOE is sharpening its strategy and identifying next steps in technology, data, modeling, and policy analysis. We are identifying and pursuing collaborative opportunities with our sister agencies.
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