IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v198y2025ics0301421524004804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dynamic changes in water use patterns of coal power generation during China's energy transition

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Zijie
  • Zhang, Chao
  • Hao, Yan
  • Zhang, Lixiao
  • Li, Xinqing
  • Li, Yuqin

Abstract

Soaring electricity demand and rapid development of power generation technology are substantially reshaping the water use patterns associated with coal power generation. The evolution of water use patterns that pose a threat to freshwater availability in China, as well as their variation across different geographic regions, remains inadequately understood. In this study, we compiled spatiotemporally-explicit data from 2011 to 2021 on freshwater consumption and withdrawal for coal-fired electric power generation in China to explore the factors driving these changes and provide the detailed spatial distribution information of freshwater usage at a grid level. Results indicate contrasting trends: while withdrawal volume decreased by 3.9 × 109 m3 yr−1, consumption volume increased by 8.1 × 108 m3 yr−1. This research also highlights the regional disparities in the impacts of power generation technology improvement on freshwater resources. The tension between coal power production and freshwater resources has been alleviated in the “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei”. However, it has intensified in several arid regions of the northwest. These results help prioritize geo-targeted efforts to balance power system decarbonization and water usage, which collectively affect the regional sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Zijie & Zhang, Chao & Hao, Yan & Zhang, Lixiao & Li, Xinqing & Li, Yuqin, 2025. "Dynamic changes in water use patterns of coal power generation during China's energy transition," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:198:y:2025:i:c:s0301421524004804
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114460
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524004804
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114460?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Srinivasan, Shweta & Kholod, Nazar & Chaturvedi, Vaibhav & Ghosh, Probal Pratap & Mathur, Ritu & Clarke, Leon & Evans, Meredydd & Hejazi, Mohamad & Kanudia, Amit & Koti, Poonam Nagar & Liu, Bo & Parik, 2018. "Water for electricity in India: A multi-model study of future challenges and linkages to climate change mitigation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 673-684.
    2. Xie, Xiaomin & Jiang, Xiaoyun & Zhang, Tingting & Huang, Zhen, 2020. "Study on impact of electricity production on regional water resource in China by water footprint," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 165-178.
    3. Aili, Ablimit & Zhao, Dongliang & Tan, Gang & Yin, Xiaobo & Yang, Ronggui, 2021. "Reduction of water consumption in thermal power plants with radiative sky cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    4. Chai, Li & Liao, Xiawei & Yang, Liu & Yan, Xianglin, 2018. "Assessing life cycle water use and pollution of coal-fired power generation in China using input-output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 951-958.
    5. Li, Mingquan & Dai, Hancheng & Xie, Yang & Tao, Ye & Bregnbaek, Lars & Sandholt, Kaare, 2017. "Water conservation from power generation in China: A provincial level scenario towards 2030," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 580-591.
    6. Li, Haoran & Cui, Xueqin & Hui, Jingxuan & He, Gang & Weng, Yuwei & Nie, Yaoyu & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2021. "Catchment-level water stress risk of coal power transition in China under 2℃/1.5℃ targets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Sun, Yubiao & Duniam, Sam & Guan, Zhiqiang & Gurgenci, Hal & Dong, Peixin & Wang, Jianyong & Hooman, Kamel, 2019. "Coupling supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle with spray-assisted dry cooling technology for concentrated solar power," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Stefano Pagiola & Konrad von Ritter & Joshua Bishop, 2004. "Assessing the Economic Value of Ecosystem Conservation," World Bank Publications - Reports 18391, The World Bank Group.
    9. Zhang, Haitian & Feng, Xiao & Wang, Yufei, 2018. "Comparison and evaluation of air cooling and water cooling in resource consumption and economic performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 157-167.
    10. Seleshi G. Yalew & Michelle T. H. van Vliet & David E. H. J. Gernaat & Fulco Ludwig & Ariel Miara & Chan Park & Edward Byers & Enrica De Cian & Franziska Piontek & Gokul Iyer & Ioanna Mouratiadou & Ja, 2020. "Impacts of climate change on energy systems in global and regional scenarios," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 794-802, October.
    11. Okadera, Tomohiro & Geng, Yong & Fujita, Tsuyoshi & Dong, Huijuan & Liu, Zhu & Yoshida, Noboru & Kanazawa, Takaaki, 2015. "Evaluating the water footprint of the energy supply of Liaoning Province, China: A regional input–output analysis approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 148-157.
    12. Heerma van Voss, Bas & Rafaty, Ryan, 2022. "Sensitive intervention points in China's coal phaseout," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    13. Mei, H. & Li, Y.P. & Suo, C. & Ma, Y. & Lv, J., 2020. "Analyzing the impact of climate change on energy-economy-carbon nexus system in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    14. Ang, B. W. & Liu, F. L. & Chew, E. P., 2003. "Perfect decomposition techniques in energy and environmental analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 1561-1566, November.
    15. Chen, Hao & Chen, Jiachuan & Han, Guoyi & Cui, Qi, 2022. "Winding down the wind power curtailment in China: What made the difference?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    16. A. T. D. Perera & Vahid M. Nik & Deliang Chen & Jean-Louis Scartezzini & Tianzhen Hong, 2020. "Quantifying the impacts of climate change and extreme climate events on energy systems," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 150-159, February.
    17. Zhang, Haonan & Zhang, Xingping & Yuan, Jiahai, 2020. "Transition of China's power sector consistent with Paris Agreement into 2050: Pathways and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Chao Zhang & Lijin Zhong & Jiao Wang, 2018. "Decoupling between water use and thermoelectric power generation growth in China," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(9), pages 792-799, September.
    19. Edward A. Byers & Gemma Coxon & Jim Freer & Jim W. Hall, 2020. "Drought and climate change impacts on cooling water shortages and electricity prices in Great Britain," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Zhang, Chao & Zhong, Lijin & Liang, Sai & Sanders, Kelly T. & Wang, Jiao & Xu, Ming, 2017. "Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 438-448.
    21. Duan, Cuncun & Chen, Bin, 2020. "Driving factors of water-energy nexus in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    22. Khan, Zarrar & Linares, Pedro & Rutten, Martine & Parkinson, Simon & Johnson, Nils & García-González, Javier, 2018. "Spatial and temporal synchronization of water and energy systems: Towards a single integrated optimization model for long-term resource planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 499-517.
    23. Pan, Lingying & Liu, Pei & Ma, Linwei & Li, Zheng, 2012. "A supply chain based assessment of water issues in the coal industry in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 93-102.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Plaga, Leonie Sara & Bertsch, Valentin, 2023. "Methods for assessing climate uncertainty in energy system models — A systematic literature review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    2. Liu, Yitong & Chen, Bin & Wei, Wendong & Shao, Ling & Li, Zhi & Jiang, Weizhong & Chen, Guoqian, 2020. "Global water use associated with energy supply, demand and international trade of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    3. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2019. "Water use of electricity technologies: A global meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Liao, Xiawei & Zhao, Xu & Liu, Wenfeng & Li, Ruoshui & Wang, Xiaoxi & Wang, Wenpeng & Tillotson, Martin R., 2020. "Comparing water footprint and water scarcity footprint of energy demand in China’s six megacities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    5. Yuqi Su & Yi Liang & Li Chai & Zixuan Han & Sai Ma & Jiaxuan Lyu & Zhiping Li & Liu Yang, 2019. "Water Degradation by China’s Fossil Fuels Production: A Life Cycle Assessment Based on an Input–Output Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-12, July.
    6. Jing-Li Fan & Zezheng Li & Xi Huang & Kai Li & Xian Zhang & Xi Lu & Jianzhong Wu & Klaus Hubacek & Bo Shen, 2023. "A net-zero emissions strategy for China’s power sector using carbon-capture utilization and storage," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Lan, Xinyao & Jin, Jiahui & Xu, Beibei & Chen, Diyi & Egusquiza, Mònica & Kim, Jin-Hyuk & Egusquiza, Eduard & Jafar, Nejadali & Xu, Lin & Kuang, Yuan, 2022. "Physical model test and parametric optimization of a hydroelectric generating system with a coaxial shaft surge tank," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 880-899.
    8. Perera, A.T.D. & Khayatian, F. & Eggimann, S. & Orehounig, K. & Halgamuge, Saman, 2022. "Quantifying the climate and human-system-driven uncertainties in energy planning by using GANs," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    9. Wang, Xue-Chao & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Wang, Yutao & Foley, Aoife & Huisingh, Donald & Guan, Dabo & Dong, Xiaobin & Varbanov, Petar Sabev, 2021. "Unsustainable imbalances and inequities in Carbon-Water-Energy flows across the EU27," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Boyce, Scott & He, Fangliang, 2022. "Political governance, socioeconomics, and weather influence provincial GHG emissions in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    11. Dongsheng Zheng & Dan Tong & Steven J. Davis & Yue Qin & Yang Liu & Ruochong Xu & Jin Yang & Xizhe Yan & Guannan Geng & Huizheng Che & Qiang Zhang, 2024. "Climate change impacts on the extreme power shortage events of wind-solar supply systems worldwide during 1980–2022," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    12. Ahmad, Ali & Covatariu, Andrei & Ramana, M.V., 2023. "A stormy future? Financial impact of climate change-related disruptions on nuclear power plant owners," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    13. Li, Haoran & Cui, Xueqin & Hui, Jingxuan & He, Gang & Weng, Yuwei & Nie, Yaoyu & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia, 2021. "Catchment-level water stress risk of coal power transition in China under 2℃/1.5℃ targets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    14. Li, Junjie & Yan, Yulong & Wang, Yirong & Zhang, Yifu & Shao, Lianwei & Li, Menggang, 2024. "Spatial-successive transfer of virtual scarcity water along China's coal-based electric chain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    15. Chen, Shiyu & Ma, Chiye & Wang, Wei & Zio, Enrico, 2024. "An agent-based cooperative co-evolutionary framework for optimizing the production planning of energy supply chains under uncertainty scenarios," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    16. Yan, Xia & Jie, Wu & Minjun, Shi & Shouyang, Wang & Zhuoying, Zhang, 2022. "China's regional imbalance in electricity demand, power and water pricing - From the perspective of electricity-related virtual water transmission," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    17. Zhang, Kai & Zhang, Yiyi & Xi, Shan & Liu, Jiefeng & Li, Jiashuo & Hou, Shengren & Chen, Bin, 2022. "Multi-objective optimization of energy-water nexus from spatial resource reallocation perspective in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    18. Zhang, Haoran & Li, Ruixiong & Cai, Xingrui & Zheng, Chaoyue & Liu, Laibao & Liu, Maodian & Zhang, Qianru & Lin, Huiming & Chen, Long & Wang, Xuejun, 2022. "Do electricity flows hamper regional economic–environmental equity?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    19. Yang, Lin & Lv, Haodong & Jiang, Dalin & Fan, Jingli & Zhang, Xian & He, Weijun & Zhou, Jinsheng & Wu, Wenjing, 2020. "Whether CCS technologies will exacerbate the water crisis in China? —A full life-cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    20. Liu, Zhi-Feng & Zhao, Shi-Xiang & Luo, Xing-Fu & Huang, Ya-He & Gu, Rui-Zheng & Li, Ji-Xiang & Li, Ling-Ling, 2025. "Two-layer energy dispatching and collaborative optimization of regional integrated energy system considering stakeholders game and flexible load management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 379(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:198:y:2025:i:c:s0301421524004804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.