Energy Versus Water: Is Blue the New Green?
There is a growing recognition that there are two convergent crises facing the world: energy and water. Scientific American launched a dedicated environmental publication this month, Earth 3.0, with the cover story Energy Vs Water. The article explores the dichotomy between the fact that we need energy to produce water and we need water to produce energy. As we are reaching Peak Oil, we also appear to be approaching Peak Water. This creates an interesting dilemma—one which will require no small amount of innovation to solve.
Biofuels, cited as one option to wean us away from petroleum, can consume 20 or more times as much water for every mile traveled than the production of gasoline. Not all biofuels are created equal however. Some are worse offenders than others, and the US National Research Council addresses this very well in ‘Water Implications of Biofuels Productions in the United States’.
Electric hybrids are another solution to get away from imported gasoline. But if we switch to electric cars, we will need more electricity and at the moment 90 percent of electricity in the US is generated at thermal power plants—those that consume coal, oil, natural gas or uranium— and these plants are water hogs. They use vast quantities of water for cooling.
The US Army Corp of engineers is currently trying to find a middle ground in an interesting water drama unfolding between the states of Florida, Alabama and Georgia. Part of the problem is that both Georgia and Alabama have come dangerously close recently to having to shut down their nuclear power plants due to lack of water.
The Energy Vs Water article goes on to say that “any switch from gasoline to electric vehicles or biofuels is a strategic decision to switch our dependence from foreign oil to domestic water”.
The Concept of Virtual Water
To help assess issues relating to water use and water balance, Professor John Anthony Allan from Kings College London developed the concept of ‘Virtual Water’.
He was awarded the Stockholm Water Prize this year for his work in this area. According to his idea, you can calculate how much water there is in, say an apple, not just physically in the apple, but on a life cycle basis, how much water went into growing it, transporting it etc. By doing this with various food items or other commodities, a country could take a view to import ‘water heavy’ items as a kind of a virtual way of importing water. For instance, behind that morning cup of coffee are 140 liters of water used to grow, produce, package and ship the beans. The ubiquitous hamburger needs an estimated 2,400 liters of water.
Put simply, it may be more cost effective to import oranges from a region that has plenty of water than to try and desalinate water at home to irrigate an orchard. That doesn’t always work, though—you can’t grow things like oranges in wet damp countries like England.
And herein lies one of the fundamental problems. There is a reason why it is easier to grow 50% of the nations fruit and vegetables in California—it’s warm and sunny. And for this same reason, populations have been moving to the sunshine belt. If we could all live in California and import melons and oranges and strawberries from England, wouldn’t that be great? And you can’t cool a nuclear reactor with virtual water—at least not yet!
Photo Credit: Getty Images
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Peak Oil it the immenent threat, not water or globle warming.
According to most independent scientific studies, global oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time demand will increase 9%.
No one can reverse this trend, nor can we conserve our way out of this catastrophe. Because the demand for oil is so high, it will always exceed production levels; thus oil depletion will continue steadily until all recoverable oil is extracted.
Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment.
We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel trucks for maintenance of bridges, cleaning culverts to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables, all from far away. With the highways out, there will be no food coming in from “outside,” and without the power grid virtually nothing works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated systems.
This is documented in a free 48 page report that can be downloaded, website posted, distributed, and emailed: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
I used to live in NH-USA, but moved to a sustainable place. Anyone interested in relocating to a nice, pretty, sustainable area with a good climate and good soil? Email: clifford dot wirth at yahoo dot com or give me a phone call which operates here as my old USA-NH number 603-668-4207. http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/
Peak Oil it the immenent threat, not water or globle warming.
According to most independent scientific studies, global oil production will now decline from 74 million barrels per day to 60 million barrels per day by 2015. During the same time demand will increase 9%.
No one can reverse this trend, nor can we conserve our way out of this catastrophe. Because the demand for oil is so high, it will always exceed production levels; thus oil depletion will continue steadily until all recoverable oil is extracted.
Alternatives will not even begin to fill the gap. And most alternatives yield electric power, but we need liquid fuels for tractors/combines, 18 wheel trucks, trains, ships, and mining equipment.
We are facing the collapse of the highways that depend on diesel trucks for maintenance of bridges, cleaning culverts to avoid road washouts, snow plowing, roadbed and surface repair. When the highways fail, so will the power grid, as highways carry the parts, transformers, steel for pylons, and high tension cables, all from far away. With the highways out, there will be no food coming in from “outside,” and without the power grid virtually nothing works, including home heating, pumping of gasoline and diesel, airports, communications, and automated systems.
This is documented in a free 48 page report that can be downloaded, website posted, distributed, and emailed: http://www.peakoilassociates.com/POAnalysis.html
I used to live in NH-USA, but moved to a sustainable place. Anyone interested in relocating to a nice, pretty, sustainable area with a good climate and good soil? Email: clifford dot wirth at yahoo dot com or give me a phone call which operates here as my old USA-NH number 603-668-4207. http://survivingpeakoil.blogspot.com/
The reality of Peak Oil has been known, though commonly denied, for 50 years. We recently experienced a brief shockwave of this dynamic. The same reality has existed with water, but to date it has received less attention due to the fact that the commodity is far less controlled than oil.
But that is changing, as corporations are now attempting to subjugate water in a similar manner, holding the world’s poorest nations up for ransom – just to get a drink of water.
The reality of Peak Oil has been known, though commonly denied, for 50 years. We recently experienced a brief shockwave of this dynamic. The same reality has existed with water, but to date it has received less attention due to the fact that the commodity is far less controlled than oil.
But that is changing, as corporations are now attempting to subjugate water in a similar manner, holding the world’s poorest nations up for ransom – just to get a drink of water.
I’m interested in seeing if they pursue generating power with waves in the near future. I know Obama is somewhat pushing for alternative energy, but I hope that blue is the new green.
I’m interested in seeing if they pursue generating power with waves in the near future. I know Obama is somewhat pushing for alternative energy, but I hope that blue is the new green.
I’m interested in seeing if they pursue generating power with waves in the near future. I know Obama is somewhat pushing for alternative energy, but I hope that blue is the new green.
There are a number of companies looking at this. Check out Finavera have been using their floating ‘AquaBuOYs’ off the coast of Oregon. They bob up and down and compress seawater which is then used to drive a turbine. There are lots of variations on the theme around this. One of the challenges with wave energy, and also with tidal energy, is to engineer something which is robust enough to withstand the marine environment. Then there is the cost of getting the energy back on shore. So while the energy is free, building the infrastructure isnt. It will be interesting to see what the installed cost per MegaWatt is compared to other forms of renewable.
There are a number of companies looking at this. Check out Finavera have been using their floating ‘AquaBuOYs’ off the coast of Oregon. They bob up and down and compress seawater which is then used to drive a turbine. There are lots of variations on the theme around this. One of the challenges with wave energy, and also with tidal energy, is to engineer something which is robust enough to withstand the marine environment. Then there is the cost of getting the energy back on shore. So while the energy is free, building the infrastructure isnt. It will be interesting to see what the installed cost per MegaWatt is compared to other forms of renewable.
There are a number of companies looking at this. Check out Finavera have been using their floating ‘AquaBuOYs’ off the coast of Oregon. They bob up and down and compress seawater which is then used to drive a turbine. There are lots of variations on the theme around this. One of the challenges with wave energy, and also with tidal energy, is to engineer something which is robust enough to withstand the marine environment. Then there is the cost of getting the energy back on shore. So while the energy is free, building the infrastructure isnt. It will be interesting to see what the installed cost per MegaWatt is compared to other forms of renewable.
In relation to Clifford J. Wirth’s comments re Peak Oil. I am not so convinced. Peak cheap oil sure. But there’s more oil out there, its just going to cost more.
So whats the consequence of that? If oil hits $200/ barrel or more? Energy efficiency becomes more attractive, renewables become more cost effective, we drive more fuel efficient cars. The economy adjusts to the increase in the price of oil. In any case, we just meet 25% of global energy needs with oil. The other 75% is still predominantly fossil fuels, coal and natural gas.
– Check out ‘Peak oil is wrong’ feature with Peter Schwartz at cleantech.com for an interesting presentation on Peak oil.
In relation to Clifford J. Wirth’s comments re Peak Oil. I am not so convinced. Peak cheap oil sure. But there’s more oil out there, its just going to cost more.
So whats the consequence of that? If oil hits $200/ barrel or more? Energy efficiency becomes more attractive, renewables become more cost effective, we drive more fuel efficient cars. The economy adjusts to the increase in the price of oil. In any case, we just meet 25% of global energy needs with oil. The other 75% is still predominantly fossil fuels, coal and natural gas.
– Check out ‘Peak oil is wrong’ feature with Peter Schwartz at cleantech.com for an interesting presentation on Peak oil.
In relation to Clifford J. Wirth’s comments re Peak Oil. I am not so convinced. Peak cheap oil sure. But there’s more oil out there, its just going to cost more.
So whats the consequence of that? If oil hits $200/ barrel or more? Energy efficiency becomes more attractive, renewables become more cost effective, we drive more fuel efficient cars. The economy adjusts to the increase in the price of oil. In any case, we just meet 25% of global energy needs with oil. The other 75% is still predominantly fossil fuels, coal and natural gas.
– Check out ‘Peak oil is wrong’ feature with Peter Schwartz at cleantech.com for an interesting presentation on Peak oil.