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Meeting Energy and Water Demands: Collocated Geothermal Solutions

This white paper focuses on strategies to optimize site and project-scale geothermal operations, including Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS), and hydrothermal systems, to address growing energy demands and dual challenges of water conservation an...

DiRaddo, S., Goecker, A., Villante, M., Wild, T., and Rebich, R.

Supporting adoption of advanced forecast informed reservoir operations tools to improve agricultural and municipal water and energy outcomes

Expanding the use of advanced forecast-informed reservoir operations tools can optimize or improve water delivery and storage for energy generation, irrigation, and municipal uses. Advanced forecast-informed data and tools are increasingly being integrated into large-scale reservo...

Jorgensen, J., Giovando, J., Pracheil, B., Hou, H., and Niazi, H.

Managing Systemic Interdependence within Energy-Water-Transportation Systems

This white paper discusses the complex interdependence between energy, water, and transportation (EWT) systems, which underpins critical infrastructure and supply chains. Failures in any of these systems can cause cascading disruptions across the others due to their tight integrat...

McPherson, T., Giovando, J., Daniel, B., Chatterjee, S., and Chowdhury, P.

Mitigating Wildfire-Driven Hydrological Impacts on Energy Generation

Following a wildfire, increased sedimentation and altered flow regimes can disrupt water quantity and quality for years, impacting water users (e.g., municipal, industrial, agricultural) and undermining energy reliability, efficiency, and infrastructure longevity. Upstream restora...

Catalano, A., Ferencz, S., Michaels, R., and Hester, E.

Synergistic Pathways for Water Security in Emerging Sectors: Data Centers and Modern Nuclear Facilities

Stand-alone data centers, nuclear-powered data centers, and novel nuclear facilities such as fusion plant and small modular reactors are water intensive sectors poised to rapidly expand, presenting a significant challenge to the water-for-energy nexus. The potential for large-scal...

Catalano, A., Duan, Z., Quimby, C., Wang, T., Chini, C., Premathilake, L., and Pope, J.

Accelerating the Acquisition of Irrigation Modernization Benefits

Accelerating the modernization of off-farm irrigation water delivery infrastructure can hasten the acquisition of many energy-water benefits: water and energy conservation, energy generation and grid reliability, and additional water conservation and increased agricultural yields ...

Jorgensen, J., Saulsbury, B., Cafferty, K., Golden, B., Kueny, K., Hou, H., and Niazi, H.

Thermoelectric and Hydropower Drought Monitor and Outlook: Tools for more robust resource adequacy planning and management

The primary focus is on issues related to water for energy; specifically, how drought-impacted water supply limits the generation potential of hydropower and thermoelectric assets. Existing Challenge: Twenty-two droughts, each causing a billion dollars or more in damages have im...

Voisin, N., Tidwell, V., and Gerlich, J.

From Modeling to Testbeds: Taking an Expanded Look at Wastewater Reuse

The primary focus is on energy for water, considering the myriad tradeoffs influencing the adoption of wastewater reuse, particularly considering its energy intensity. Wastewater reuse offers a compelling opportunity to concurrently tackle water scarcity and enhance energy effic...

Tidwell, V., Bixler, T., Niazi, H., Marsh, P., and Wild, T.

Co-optimization of Energy and Water Demands to Enable Rapid but Resilient Expansion of Data Centers

Data centers consume substantial amounts of electricity and can amplify water stress locally as well as in distant regions via their direct (for cooling) and indirect (for thermoelectric power generation) consumption of water. There is an opportunity to enhance energy-water resili...

Burleyson, C., Akdemir, K., Mongird, K., and Wild, T.

Accounting for Water-Energy Co-Benefits of Floating Photovoltaics (FPV)

Floating photovoltaic projects, as well as those that span over waterways (i.e. canopy), present potential technological and economic advantages over ground-mounted systems that have fueled rapid global growth in installed capacity in recent years. Aside from expanding generation,...

Fluet-Chouinard, E., Jorgensen, J., Cotter, E., Niazi, H., Wild, T., Chalishazar, V., Pracheil, B., Griffiths, N., Hansen, C., and Chowdhury, K.