کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
995825 936275 2011 12 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
The water–energy nexus in Middle East and North Africa
موضوعات مرتبط
مهندسی و علوم پایه مهندسی انرژی مهندسی انرژی و فناوری های برق
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
The water–energy nexus in Middle East and North Africa
چکیده انگلیسی

Extracting, delivering, and disposing water requires energy, and similarly, many processes for extracting and refining various fuel sources and producing electricity use water. This so-called ‘water–energy nexus’, is important to understand due to increasing energy demands and decreasing freshwater supplies in many areas. This paper performs a country-level quantitative assessment of this nexus in the MENA region. The results show a highly skewed coupling with a relatively weak dependence of energy systems on fresh water, but a strong dependence of water abstraction and production systems on energy. In case of Saudi Arabia it is estimated that up to 9% of the total annual electrical energy consumption may be attributed to ground water pumping and desalination. Other countries in the Arabian Gulf may be consuming 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption for desalination. The results suggest that policy makers should explicitly consider energy implications in water intensive food imports and future restructuring of water demand. This will help in making more integrated decisions on water and energy infrastructure systems. An integrated assessment may in some cases favor water reuse and changes in the agricultural sector as opposed to the expansion of energy intensive and financially expensive desalination systems.


► The water–energy nexus in MENA has a highly skewed coupling.
► Energy production systems are weakly dependent on fresh water.
► Water abstraction and production is strongly dependent on energy.
► In Arabian Gulf countries, 5–12% or more of total electricity consumption is for desalination.
► Energy implications in water intensive food imports should be included in policy considerations.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Energy Policy - Volume 39, Issue 8, August 2011, Pages 4529–4540
نویسندگان
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