The Water-Energy Nexus: Water Withdrawals for Energy Generation

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Doors open at 6:30PM
Talks start at 7pm
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Talk abstract: The US energy system requires large amounts of water for primary energy extraction, processing and refining, conversion, waste disposal, and remediation. Recent work shows that the energy system withdraws about 40% of US water and consumes about 10% (of both freshwater and total water), which is particularly significant given that agriculture consumes an estimated 70-80% of US freshwater. Data on water withdrawal and consumption are sparse, which makes it difficult to characterize human water uses. In turn, lack of data is a challenge for comanagement of interconnected systems. This talk will address some of the challenges and solutions for finding physical data in a low-information context, in addition to best practices for reporting data to improve usability.

Speaker bio: Dr. Emily Grubert studies how we can make better decisions about large infrastructure systems, with a particular focus on energy and water systems in the US. Emily will be joining Georgia Tech in January 2019 as an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She holds a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford.