Stories tagged with "water"
EROWI - energy return of water invested
Posted by Ugo Bardi on November 5, 2009 - 10:15am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: energy, eroei, eroi, water [list all tags]
Energy Return of Water Invested (EROWI). From an article by Robert Service in Science Magazine. The data in the table originate from "Energy demands on water resources",report to the congress, 2006 link.
Eight Principles for Successful Rainwater Harvesting
Posted by jeffvail on July 29, 2009 - 6:02pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: brad lancaster, cistern, rainwater harvesting, self sufficiency, water [list all tags]
Food produced from rainwater on Brad Lancaster's Tucson residence
Brad Lancasteris a permaculture expert and consultant based in Tucson. His award-winning book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume I: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into your Life and Landscape (2006, Rainsource Press) and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2: Water-Harvesting Earthworks are available on the web at www.HarvestingRainwater.com and at amazon.com. This website also contains a bounty of free information, image, video, and audio resources.
Senate Testimony on the Energy Water Nexus
Posted by Nate Hagens on March 24, 2009 - 9:26am
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: michael webber, water [list all tags]
Below the fold is the 3/10 testimony to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate by Professor Michael Webber, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Director, Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy at The University of Texas at Austin (hat-tip Debbie Cook).
Dr. Webber explains the intricate and increasingly vital links between energy and water, both in the United States, and the world. As previously mentioned, I have a paper (finally after nearly 3 years) in press on the Energy Return on Water Invested - a statistic that further adjusts a technologies unit energy return for each associated water unit (consumption or withdrawal). How we choose/optimize between limited and limiting natural resources will be the central policy challenge in the decades ahead. I am encouraged that government is hearing about not only about scarcity of low cost vital inputs, but their inter-relationships.
A Trip to Todd's
Posted by Nate Hagens on January 18, 2009 - 12:36pm in The Oil Drum: Campfire
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: campfire, original, photovoltaics, water [list all tags]
Below the fold is a 'Campfire' submission from Todd Detzel, posting for many years on TOD as 'Todd -a Realist'. Todd has a BS in chemistry but moved into mostly process development and chemical engineering including starting-up new facilities. He was a chemical plant manager before moving to the country in 1974. Since that time he has been everything from a small-scale certified organic grower to home designer and builder. He is now retired.
Plan for Hydro-Fracture Drilling for Unconventional Natural Gas in Upstate New York
Posted by Glenn on July 23, 2008 - 10:30am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: hydro-fracing, natural gas, water [list all tags]
Here's a slideshow of some of the key images. I'll have more on this as information becomes available. Kudos to WNYC and ProPublica for uncovering this in a great example of investigative journalism.
Abundant Skies: 8 Principles for Successful Rainwater Harvesting
Posted by jeffvail on July 5, 2008 - 11:00am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: brad lancaster, cistern, original, rainwater harvesting, self sufficiency, water [list all tags]
The following is a guest post by Brad Lancaster on rainwater harvesting. Energy scarcity and water scarcity are closely related phenomena, especially in certain parts of the world. While rainwater harvesting is no panacea for our water or energy problems, it may be a critical component in many regions for dealing with issues of scarcity. It is also an excellent example of a scale-free tool: it can be implemented by individuals, communities, or nations.

Food produced from rainwater on Brad Lancaster's Tucson residence
Brad Lancaster is a permaculture expert and consultant based in Tucson. His award-winning book Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume I: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into your Life and Landscape (2006, Rainsource Press) and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2: Water-Harvesting Earthworks are available on the web at www.HarvestingRainwater.com and at amazon.com. This website also contains a bounty of free information, image, video, and audio resources.
Solving Our Water Problems - Desalination Using Solar Thermal Power
Posted by Big Gav on May 2, 2008 - 3:00pm in The Oil Drum: Australia/New Zealand
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: acquasol, australia, concentrating solar power, desalination, solar thermal power, stephen schneider, water [list all tags]
There were a couple of small Australian solar power projects that I left out of my look at solar thermal power a little while ago, as I thought they were worthy of separate consideration.
I talked about one of these - Wizard Power's technique for storing energy using ammonia - last week. The other project is by a company called Acquasol which is building a plant to desalinate water using solar thermal energy at Point Paterson, near Port Augusta in South Australia.
Like Wizard Power and Lloyd Energy's graphite based energy storage technique, Acquasol received an initial round of funding from the (now defunct) Australian Greenhouse Office's Advanced Energy Storage Technology program.
In this post I'll look at the Acquasol project and then more generally at water scarcity worldwide and some of the approaches being taken to tackle it.
Peak water in Saudi Arabia
Posted by Ugo Bardi on January 29, 2008 - 10:45am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Environment/Sustainability
Tags: production peak, saudi arabia, water [list all tags]

Saudi Arabian cultivated fields as visible using Google Earth. Each circle is an irrigated area of about 1 km diameter. The whole square is about 10 km side. The coordinates are 26°47'21.64"N, 49°10'41.43"E.
A useful series on energy, and a Wish
Posted by Heading Out on December 26, 2007 - 10:41am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Tags: coal, environment, hydropower, nuclear, solar power, water [list all tags]
As I mentioned in my last post, this is the time for Seasonal travel, and so, for the first time it finds us, transiently, in Western Massachusetts. Picking up the local paper The Sunday Republican I discovered tht they are in the midst of a series on Energy in the 21st Century. The series began with an article on solar power , which was followed by one on nuclear power and then by one on the use of coal. The latest, which first caught my attention, is on power from water. There will be two more in the series, one next week on biofuels, and then one the following week on wind.
The needs and use of water for power, industrial plants and people
Posted by Heading Out on November 6, 2007 - 10:10am
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: cap, consumption, evaporators, original, process water, sagd, south africa, southern california, water [list all tags]
I was recently in a meeting with some State officials, and representatives of a large fossil energy supply company. The meeting was largely focused on State-centered efforts to increase the amount of renewable or sustainable energy. In the course of the discussion the company representatives raised the issue of water availability, and how this might impact some of the options. It is a subject that is starting to raise its head in more than just this type of discussion. If we look at the current drought status of the United States, for example.

The exceptional drought in the South East and the extreme drought in the South West are both evident. The growing impact of the sustained lack of water, or the need to provide water to an increasing number of people or a growing industrial base, from a fixed resource, is one that will have an impact that goes beyond just the immediate short term. And so, being curious, I looked at the major users of water, and what they did with it. And it was in this light that I then looked at one of the promising new technologies that Dave Rutledge had mentioned at the ASPO conference, the use of concentrated sun power (csp), and in the process I also looked at how they are handling process water in the oil sands of Alberta.


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