China's energy-water nexus – assessment of the energy sector's compliance with the “3 Red Lines” industrial water policy

Ying Qin,Elizabeth Curmi,Grant M Kopec,Julian M Allwood,Keith S Richards

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2015.03.013

Abstract

Increasing population and economic growth continue to drive China's demand for energy and water resources. The interaction of these resources is particularly important in China, where water resources are unevenly distributed, with limited availability in coal-rich regions. The “3 Red Lines” water policies were introduced in 2011; one of their aims is to reduce industrial water use, of which the energy sector is a part. This paper analyses current water withdrawals and consumption for all energy processes and assesses the sector's compliance with the industrial water policy under different scenarios, considering potential future policy and technological changes. The results show that future energy plans could conflict with the industrial water policy, but the amount of water used in the energy sector is highly dependant on technology choices, especially for power plant cooling. High electricity demand in the future is expected to be met mainly by coal and nuclear power, and planned inland development of nuclear power presents a new source of freshwater demand. Taking a holistic view of energy and water-for-energy enables the identification of co-benefits and trade-offs between energy and water policies that can facilitate the development of more compatible and sustainable energy and water plans.

Highlights

Increasing population and economic growth continue to drive China's demand for energy and water resources
This study aims to address this issue and answer a key question; is it likely that the energy sector will comply with the “3 Red Lines” industrial water policy? To answer this general question, more specific research questions are addressed: (1) How is water currently used in China's energy sector?; (2) How might the energy sector and its water use develop up to the 2030s?; (3) How is the answer to (2) influenced by technology and policy changes?
In order to answer the main question of the energy sector's compliance with the industrial water policy, the three specific research questions introduced in Section 1 were assessed and the results are presented in the following sub-sections

Summary

Introduction

Increasing population and economic growth continue to drive China's demand for energy and water resources. Recognising the need to reconcile coal use and water supply, the Chinese government added the “water-for-coal” plan to the “3 Red Lines” water policies in 2013, requiring future large-scale coal projects in water scarce regions to be developed in partnership with local water authorities. This is significant progress, but other energy processes should be considered in a wider “water-forenergy” plan. The following section evaluates previous research on water and energy, to define the specific questions that need to be addressed by this analysis

Results

Discussion

Conclusion