Future Demand For Water Will Cause Rising Energy Prices

Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by Ross in Climate Change, Energy Shortages

Water shortages and their direct effects on human populations have dominated the news long before global warming became a mainstream concept, especially in drought-ridden areas of Africa. As the world’s population continues to exponentially explode, rural-urban migration continues unabated and increases in personal wealth fuels greater demands and expectations, water resources will be increasingly stretched globally. The likely results of climate change are expected to exacerbate this trend, with global warming making weather conditions drier in most of the areas predicted to see the biggest growth in demand. To cap it all, the resulting water crisis and the necessary steps to combat it will massively increase energy demands, energy prices, energy shortages and CO₂ emissions.

Life’s most precious resource

A third of the world’s current population lives with scarce supplies of water, and as the population grows a 40% increase in water supplies will be required to prevent starvation. Fast-developing nations such as China and India will see an extra 500 million incomes rise above $5,000, accompanied by higher demands for meat and fish diets: such eating habits require double the amount to water used in production than vegetarian diets, and on average 50% of food is wasted by the industrialised world.

Burgeoning new industrial endeavours also place additional demands on supplies, as well as contributing to the pollution of water sources. Environmental-orientated efforts to replace oil use with biofuels also adds to the burden upon water resources. Improved techniques exist in agriculture and elsewhere for much greater water conservation, but there is little economic impetus to enact such measures: despite being a vital commodity, water is extremely cheap, making water savings investments give poor financial returns.

H₂0: The New CO₂?

Drastic problems call for drastic measures, and most of the measures needed to combat water shortages have a common denominator: higher energy costs. Drilling deeper wells requires more powerful pumps. Desalination plants consume massive amounts of electricity - although a new zero-emissions power and desalination technology from Australia will aid efforts in coastal regions.

China in particular has massive drought problems which will only get worse, and has embarked on a number of huge capital projects to address the issue. The grandest of these is the South-North Water Diversion Project - an effort to divert large quantities of water from the Yangtze into China’s arid north. The project was started in 2001, and once completed will consume vast amounts of energy pumping water through the system. Widescale efforts to increase the quality of public supplies of water will also demand yet more energy for the necessary treatment plants.

By encouraging better water efficiency, governments could make simple yet substantial savings in energy costs and CO₂ emissions.

No Water, No Power

As water usage escalates and shortages are incurred, it also places extra direct burdens upon the power-generation industry. Hydro-electric stations are the most obvious losers, but conventional fossil fuel and nuclear plants are also directly affected by shortages. The heat created by the burning of coal, oil or gas, or by nuclear fission, is converted into electricity via turbines driven by the conversion of water into steam by the heat. Power stations therefore consume gargantuan quantities of water, despite the use of cooling towers to reclaim as much as possible.

The effect on energy companies has already been demonstrated. In 2003 France suffered from a heatwave that left river levels low. With insufficient water resources to feed its’ nuclear power stations, EDF had to close a quarter of them, and the cost of generating electricity at the French energy giant rose by 1300%. It was forced to import large quantities of power, leaving it