Water Constraints in an Electric Sector Capacity Expansion Model
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
This analysis provides a description of the first U.S. national electricity capacity expansion model to incorporate water resource availability and costs as a constraint for the future development of the electricity sector. The Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model was modified to incorporate water resource availability constraints and costs in each of its 134 Balancing Area (BA) regions along with differences in costs and efficiencies of cooling systems. Water resource availability and cost data are from recently completed research at Sandia National Laboratories (Tidwell et al. 2013b). Scenarios analyzed include a business-as-usual 3 This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. scenario without water constraints as well as four scenarios that include water constraints and allow for different cooling systems and types of water resources to be utilized. This analysis provides insight into where water resource constraints could affect the choice, configuration, or location of new electricity technologies.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1215271
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-6A20-64270
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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