Energy-Water Resilience

Energy and water systems are intricately linked. For example, energy is necessary to power water treatment systems and to move water to meet use demands (e.g., irrigation of crop fields). Water is needed to generate electricity—it is used in the operation of hydropower and thermoelectric facilities (like nuclear power plants) to power homes and businesses across the country. However, risks to water supply sustainability are expected to increase in the future. The Western United States is particularly vulnerable due to increases in energy and water demands and natural hydrologic conditions.

Map of the United States with each municipality outlined. The map illustrates the average daily energy demand by agriculture, public water supply, and wastewater treatment sectors. Most of the map East of New Mexico is dark blue, except for large cities, indicating that the daily energy demand by these services is less than 250 MW/h while many municipalities West of New Mexico are yellow indicating that they require 500 MW/h to run these services on a daily basis.

The daily energy demands of critical resource sectors, such as agriculture, drinking water supply, and wastewater treatment, vary across the country.

Image Courtesy of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The map above illustrates the daily energy demand from agriculture, drinking water supply, and wastewater treatment for municipalities across the United States. The areas in yellow require 500 megawatt hours of power per day to meet these needs, which is equivalent to how much power an average home uses in 42 years.

Map of the United States with each municipality outlined. The map illustrates the future risk to water supply sustainability. Many areas in the Southern and Western United States have high to extreme water sustainability risks by 2050

Many municipalities throughout the United States are projects to face high to extreme water supply sustainability risk in 2050.

Image Courtesy of the 2014 National Climate Assessment

As shown in the map above, many of the municipalities that have high energy demand for essential services, such as agriculture, wastewater treatment, and drinking water reserves, are also at risk of losing significant portions of their water supply by 2050 due to drought.

This example of the growing mismatch between water demand and supply is among the reasons why the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office (H2O) is working to better understand how H2O can support local economies across the United States to meet their interconnected energy and water needs while building resilience to associated stressors. The office’s activities focused on energy-water resilience aim to support innovative technology solutions to advance integrated energy and water projects in alignment with needs on a regional scale.