U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program

Wind Energy for Water Applications

The Wind/Water Nexus poster presented at the WindPower 2006 conference. (PDF 1.6 MB)
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As communities grow, greater demands are placed on water supplies, wastewater services, and the electricity needed to power the growing water services infrastructure. Water is also a critical resource for thermoelectric power plants. Future population growth in the United States is therefore expected to heighten competition for water resources. Especially in arid U.S. regions, communities may soon face hard choices with respect to water and electric power.

Many parts of the United States with increasing water stresses also have significant wind energy resources. Wind power is the fastest-growing electric generation source in the United States and is decreasing in cost to be competitive with thermoelectric generation. Wind energy can potentially offer communities in water-stressed areas the option of economically meeting increasing energy needs without increasing demands on valuable water resources. Wind energy can also provide targeted energy production to serve critical local water-system needs. The DOE Wind Program has been exploring the potential for wind power to meet growing challenges for water supply and treatment. The program is currently characterizing the U.S. regions that are most likely to benefit from wind-water applications and is also exploring the associated technical and policy issues associated with bringing wind energy to bear on water resource challenges. See below for particular wind-water applications.

• Wind Energy for Municipal Water Supply
• Wind Energy for Agricultural Water Supply
• Wind Energy for Thermoelectric Generation Water Supply

Related Information

To read more about wind energy for water applications click on the links to events, organizations and publications below.

Events

• WEFTEC 80th Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference Conservation and Renewable Energy
  October 13 - 17, 2007, San Diego, CA. - abstracts due December 1, 2006
• Southwest Renewable Energy Conference
  August 1-3, 2006
• Universities Council on Water Resources/National Institutes for Water Resources, Annual Conference Increasing Freshwater Supplies (PDF 556 KB) Download Adobe Reader.
  Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 18-20, 2006
• Water Policy Conferences
  May 19, 2006
  University of New Mexico School of Law
  Utton Transboundary Resources Center
• Exploring the Energy-Water Nexus: A Stakeholder Dialogue for Identification of Critical Issues
  February 25, 2005, NREL.

Organizations

• Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Water and Energy Technology Team
• Sandia National Laboratories
  Energy-Water Nexus
• Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable
• USDA National Agricultural Library
  Tools and Guides: Funding for projects affecting water

Publications

Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

• Aquifer Basics, USGs
• The Wind/Water Nexus, AWEA Windpower 2006 conference poster
  June 2006 (PDF 1.6 MB)
• The Wind/Water Nexus, Wind Powering America fact sheet
  April 2006 DOE/GO-102006-2218 (PDF 650 KB)
• Confronting the Nation's Water Problems: the Role of Research 2004
  Water Science and Technology Board
• Estimated Water Use in the United States, USGS
  March 2004 (PDF 1.2 MB)