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Standardized Siting and Risk Analysis Decision Support Mechanisms for Water-Intensive Industries

This paper focuses on water for cooling industrial energy generation loads and energy and water for cooling large process loads. A challenge is that siting any large facility with substantial water demands without understanding baseline conditions and assessing potential multi-sec...

Fuchs, H., Karki, U., Stokes-Draut, J., Rao, P., Varadharajan, C., Hodson, A., Ajami, N., and Shehabi, A.

Advancing Energy-Water Resilience through Integrated Science and Technology for Natural Infrastructure Management

This white paper focuses on water for energy. The challenge is that ecosystems are under increasing stress from rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and intensifying disturbances like wildfire, insects, and land-use change, which can impact the hydrologic capacity of watershed...

Dickman, L., Atchley, A., Giovando, J., Fluet-Chouinard, E., Xu, C., and McPherson, T.

Hybrid Bioenergy and Hydropower Systems: Leveraging Heterogeneous Biomass and Wastes from Watersheds

Sandia National Laboratories and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) explore the water-for-energy nexus in this white paper, focusing on the impact of heterogeneous watershed waste materials on hydropower facilities. They identify key challenges--such as pile burning, wildfires, and d...

Quiroz-Arita, C., and Paudel, R.

Gaps Between Western U.S. Reservoir Inflows and Headwater Precipitation Timing, Amount, and Phase

Snowmelt from mountain headwater basins supplies approximately 80% of the runoff to reservoirs in the western United States (WUS), and is therefore a key component of western hydropower. Yet predicting runoff from hydrometeorological data in complex terrain (and its sensitivity to...

Rudisill, W., and Feldman, D.

Aligning Bytes with Basins to Promote Data Center Growth in the U.S.

This white paper examines the water-energy tradeoffs of U.S. data-center expansion, highlighting how cooling choices, power sourcing, and siting decisions shape local water security, grid resilience, and watershed sustainability. The study focuses on integrating direct (on-site po...

Siddik, M., Turner, S., and Chinthavali, S.

Improved quantification of river nutrient loading for better water quality and more efficient energy use

The focus of this paper is multi-sector dynamics involving agriculture practices, water quality and energy. Currently there lacks high-resolution spatiotemporal data regarding water quality and usage, forcing the planning for water treatment to adopt the conservative, worst-case a...

Tang, J., and Zhu, Q.

Joint modeling of water and energy for resilience and flexibility

The white paper focuses on the intersection of energy and potable water systems through joint modeling to enhance resilience, flexibility, and operational efficiency. The paper identifies the lack of integrated modeling tools as the primary obstacle in managing interconnected wate...

Chini, C., Thomas, M., Bixler, T., and Cejudo, C.

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.

Energy-Water-Land Frameworks for Data Center Siting and Operations

This white paper focuses on energy-water-land intersections for data center siting and operations. Challenges include rapid deployment of data centers and consequential uncertainty regarding the extent these facilities may impact or be constrained by water, land, and energy resou...

Macknick, J., Schneider, K., Barton, R., Hardikar, M., Martin, J., Struck, S., Lepley, K., Steward, D., Smith, F., Levine, A., Rivers, M., Rosenlieb, E., Gu, J., Podgorny, S., Castelao, G., and Leick, N.

Integrated Planning for Resilient Energy-, Infrastructure-, and Hydro-Scapes

The focus of this paper is nationally-comprehensive, hyper-granular assessment of future energy expansion opportunities and challenges, considering multi-dimensional risks and consequent implications of large infrastructure additions on surface water and groundwater, spanning from...

McCollum, D., Rathore, S., Liu, Y., and Parish, E.

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