Water use of the UK thermal electricity generation fleet by 2050: Part 2 quantifying the problem

Daniel Murrant, Andrew Quinn, Lee Chapman and Chris Heaton

Energy Policy, 2017, vol. 108, issue C, 859-874

Abstract: The increasing demand for energy is expected to predominantly be met from a global expansion of water intensive thermal electricity generation. Most countries will in future have less freshwater available when inevitability the cost of thermal generation depends on water availability. A country's future energy costs will directly affect its future global competiveness. Many studies have identified that the solution to the UK's future energy policy's mismatch between thermal generation and freshwater availability is for the UK to make greater use of its seawater resource. The fact the UK with a long learning curve of successful nuclear coastal generation is not progressing coastal generation more enthusiastically raises fundamental policy questions. This paper considers the issues involved. A methodology is developed to assess how the UK's electricity generation portfolio will change in terms of the technologies adopted, and their cost, as access to seawater is varied under Q70 and Q95 freshwater conditions. It was found the emphasis UK energy policy gives to the competing demands of low cost electricity generation and environmental protection will have significant impacts on the cost and make-up of the UK's future electricity generation portfolio.

Keywords: Water-energy nexus; UK energy policy; Water resource management; Water abstraction reform; Climate change; Power station cooling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151730191X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:859-874

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.03.047

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().