ACEEE’s interest in the energy–water nexus originates from that a lot of energy sources are eaten inside water and wastewater industries, along with water end-uses, primarily liquid heating. Dealing with water and energy efficiency collectively can cause significant affordable energy and water savings. Various other benefits include mitigating and adjusting to climate change, and increasing community strength.
Increased coordination involving the liquid and energy sectors breaks down traditional silos and paves just how for an integrative method of preserving power and liquid. ACEEE was within forefront of those attempts and a few lovers, such as the Alliance for liquid performance (AWE), water Environment Federation, the nationwide Association of liquid organizations (NAWC), and many nationwide laboratories.
These days we’re releasing a fresh resource, The Energy–Water Nexus: examining the Stream of Options, summarizing our efforts over the past decade and describing options for future ACEEE work.
Looking at past work on the nexus
Subsequently, we now have pursued analysis on numerous facets of the blueprint. To deal with its second element—to better know how energy sources are embedded in liquid and water is embedded in energy—ACEEE began conducting study and collecting information to see system design. Our first effort had been the 2014 report, Watts in a Drop of Liquid: Savings within Water–Energy Nexus. This research included energy-intensity ranges for liquid conveyance, distribution, and treatment, and for wastewater therapy and discharge. Our 2015 followup report a study of Energy use within liquid Companies, examined surveys of NAWC user organizations concerning power use in liquid processing.
Another section of the plan we dedicated to could be the increased collaboration between your energy and water communities. ACEEE’s 2013 report, preserving liquid and Energy Collectively: Helping Utilities develop Better tools, identified the opportunities and advantages of generating shared programs to truly save liquid and power within the domestic, commercial, professional, farming, and municipal sectors.
What does the long run hold?
We’ve held busy, but there’s much more to-do. As well as disseminating our analysis to brand new viewers, we are going to consider updating previous analysis, like our focus on joint energy and liquid energy collaboration. We are going to additionally think about brand-new subjects, including the link between environment change while the energy–water nexus, and how efforts to improve performance in liquid end-uses in addition to liquid system can increase community strength. Future research could document just how these attempts decrease neighborhood exposure to acute and chronic stresses, including high bills for low-income homes.
Read the resource to get more details, and remain tuned for our future work. ACEEE will continue to collaborate with our partners to prioritize research places and deliver insightful, high-quality evaluation on approaches to effortlessly save your self both energy and liquid.