Abstract
Insular territories face important challenges in achieving effective sustainable development, mainly due to low internal availability of basic resources, which results in a high external dependency. The analysis of the energy–water nexus of islands is a powerful instrument to evaluate the sustainable goals of the region and to identify the key actions to take to fulfill these objectives in future scenarios. The aim of this study is to review the energy–water nexus applied to Tenerife (Canary Islands), considering three scenarios: the base case scenario, corresponding to the current situation, where 1.1% of consumed water is dedicated to energy production and 10.2% of the energy is supplied for water abstraction, depuration, and ocean discharge; and two projections for the year 2050: a maintained trend scenario, and an ecology-aware scenario, where the population growth and the deployment of electrical vehicles are considered. In 2018, the total energy consumed was 1954 ktoe, of which renewable energy made up 2%. In the maintained trend scenario, this amount rises to 2003 ktoe, of which renewable energies represent 29%. However, in the ecology-aware scenario, this amount could be reduced to 1710 ktoe of which 51% of energy is obtained from renewable sources.
Highlights
Access to water and energy is the most important challenge and a prominent need of global society
Using as a start point the current evaluation of the water-energy nexus of the island, the present study evaluates the two different scenarios of the energy–water nexus that we understand should be included in this kind of analysis for 2050: a maintained trend scenario and an ecology-aware scenario
The same parameters have been used for scaling the energy demand in both scenarios, the modeled differences between the demand side of the energy systems of both had an impact on the amount of final energy required
Summary
Access to water and energy is the most important challenge and a prominent need of global society. A recent study estimated that only 200,000 km of freshwater is available for human use and consumption, representing less than 1% of all global freshwater resources available [1]. Fresh water is primarily used for human consumption, but it is required for diverse human activities, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and the electric power sector [3]. The supply and availability of fresh water is intrinsically related to the availability of energy because energy is required for pumping from water wells, desalination, reclaiming water, wastewater treatment, transportation, and distribution, which are energy-intensive processes [5,6,7]. Global energy consumption in the water sector in 2014 reached
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