IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v152y2020icp165-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Study on impact of electricity production on regional water resource in China by water footprint

Author

Listed:
  • Xie, Xiaomin
  • Jiang, Xiaoyun
  • Zhang, Tingting
  • Huang, Zhen

Abstract

China’s electricity demand and production face rapid growth with the fast economic development. The large-scaled water consumption and pollution caused by electricity production have put great challenges to the sustainable development of water resources. This study carried out researches on the impact of power generation on the local water resource using water footprint (WF) method. Inventory at equipment level was analyzed for thermal power to calculate the WF with the bottom-up approach. The results showed that the thermal power production leaded to a huge WF. The national average was at 6.33L/kWh (ranged from 5.27 L/kWh to 7.31 L/kWh). The obvious regional distinctions caused by the difference of cooling technology and thermal power plants capacity. The national average electricity WF was at 4.70L/kWh, and regional results ranged from 0.084 L/kWh to 7.174L/kWh, declining from east to west in general. Water stress index (WSI) was used as the water scarcity footprint evaluation indicators to analyze the impact of WF of electricity production on local water resource. The water scarcity footprint of electricity in the northern region is high, especially in North and Northwest areas, electricity production put serious threat to local available water and water environmental capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:152:y:2020:i:c:p:165-178
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120300264
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.025?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chang, Yuan & Huang, Runze & Ries, Robert J. & Masanet, Eric, 2015. "Life-cycle comparison of greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption for coal and shale gas fired power generation in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 335-343.
    2. Wu, X.D. & Ji, Xi & Li, Chaohui & Xia, X.H. & Chen, G.Q., 2019. "Water footprint of thermal power in China: Implications from the high amount of industrial water use by plant infrastructure of coal-fired generation system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 452-461.
    3. Scherer, Laura & Pfister, Stephan, 2016. "Global water footprint assessment of hydropower," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 711-720.
    4. Xie, Xiaomin & Jiang, Xiaoyun & Zhang, Tingting & Huang, Zhen, 2019. "Regional water footprints assessment for hydroelectricity generation in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 316-325.
    5. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Behrouz Pirouz & Stefania Anna Palermo & Mario Maiolo & Natale Arcuri & Patrizia Piro, 2020. "Decreasing Water Footprint of Electricity and Heat by Extensive Green Roofs: Case of Southern Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-16, December.
    3. 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).
    4. Li, Guang & Li, Na & Liu, Fan & Zhou, Xing, 2022. "Development of life cycle water footprint for lignocellulosic biomass to biobutanol via thermochemical method," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 222-227.
    5. 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).
    6. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Bin, 2020. "Effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions from China's heavy industry? Evidence from semiparametric regression models," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    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. 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).
    2. Krarti, Moncef & Aldubyan, Mohammad, 2021. "Mitigation analysis of water consumption for power generation and air conditioning of residential buildings: Case study of Saudi Arabia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    3. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2021. "The energy-water nexus of China’s interprovincial and seasonal electric power transmission," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    4. de Oliveira Bueno, Eduardo & Alves, Geovane J. & Mello, Carlos R., 2020. "Hydroelectricity water footprint in Parana Hydrograph Region, Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 596-612.
    5. Wang, Chunyan & Wang, Ranran & Hertwich, Edgar & Liu, Yi & Tong, Fan, 2019. "Water scarcity risks mitigated or aggravated by the inter-regional electricity transmission across China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 413-422.
    6. 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).
    7. Zhou, Yuanchun & Ma, Mengdie & Gao, Peiqi & Xu, Qiming & Bi, Jun & Naren, Tuya, 2019. "Managing water resources from the energy - water nexus perspective under a changing climate: A case study of Jiangsu province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 380-390.
    8. 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.
    9. Wu, X.D. & Guo, J.L. & Chen, G.Q., 2018. "The striking amount of carbon emissions by the construction stage of coal-fired power generation system in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 358-369.
    10. Arjen Y. Hoekstra, 2017. "Water Footprint Assessment: Evolvement of a New Research Field," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(10), pages 3061-3081, August.
    11. Mahmud, M. A. Parvez & Huda, Nazmul & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan & Lang, Candace, 2019. "A strategic impact assessment of hydropower plants in alpine and non-alpine areas of Europe," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 198-214.
    12. Xie, Xiaomin & Jiang, Xiaoyun & Zhang, Tingting & Huang, Zhen, 2019. "Regional water footprints assessment for hydroelectricity generation in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 316-325.
    13. Ana Luiza Fontenelle & Erik Nilsson & Ieda Geriberto Hidalgo & Cintia B. Uvo & Drielli Peyerl, 2022. "Temporal Understanding of the Water–Energy Nexus: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-21, April.
    14. Yiyi Zhang & Shengren Hou & Jiefeng Liu & Hanbo Zheng & Jiaqi Wang & Chaohai Zhang, 2020. "Evolution of Virtual Water Transfers in China’s Provincial Grids and Its Driving Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    15. Zhou, Zhongbing & Qin, Quande, 2020. "Epistemological dominance and ignorance of the comparative advantages of China's shale gas: Evidence from international scientific journals," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Zhang, Jing & Lei, Xiaohui & Chen, Bin & Song, Yongyu, 2019. "Analysis of blue water footprint of hydropower considering allocation coefficients for multi-purpose reservoirs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    17. Wu, X.D. & Chen, G.Q., 2017. "Energy and water nexus in power generation: The surprisingly high amount of industrial water use induced by solar power infrastructure in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 125-136.
    18. Xu, Zhongwen & Tan, Shiqi & Yao, Liming & Lv, Chengwei, 2024. "Exploring water-saving potentials of US electric power transition while thirsting for carbon neutrality," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    19. Zhao, Rongqin & Liu, Ying & Tian, Mengmeng & Ding, Minglei & Cao, Lianhai & Zhang, Zhanping & Chuai, Xiaowei & Xiao, Liangang & Yao, Lunguang, 2018. "Impacts of water and land resources exploitation on agricultural carbon emissions: The water-land-energy-carbon nexus," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 480-492.
    20. Mohd Alsaleh & Muhammad Mansur Abdulwakil & Abdul Samad Abdul-Rahim, 2021. "Land-Use Change Impacts from Sustainable Hydropower Production in EU28 Region: An Empirical Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, April.

    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:renene:v:152:y:2020:i:c:p:165-178. 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.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.