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  • An Environmental and Societal Analysis of the US Electrical Energy Industry Based on the Water-Energy Nexus

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    Stewart484272-Published.pdf (1.633Mb)
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    Version of Record (VoR)
    Author(s)
    Shirkey, Gabriela
    Belongeay, Megan
    Wu, Susie
    Ma, Xiaoguang
    Tavakol, Hassan
    Anctil, Annick
    Marquette-Pyatt, Sandra
    Stewart, Rodney A
    Sinha, Parikith
    Corkish, Richard
    Chen, Jiquan
    Celik, Ilke
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Stewart, Rodney A.
    Year published
    2021
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    To meet rising energy demands, power plant operations will expand, influencing the interactions between the water–energy nexus and society. However, a major challenge is integration of social dimensions within electricity generation. To address this, we generate a baseline dataset using US public data (2014–2019) from the Energy Information Administration and US Bureau of Labor Statistics. We identify the rate of energy consumed, CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions generated, and water used per MWh net electricity as well as employee wellbeing per unit MW capacity during electricity generation. Rates of energy consumption (MMBtu/MWh) ...
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    To meet rising energy demands, power plant operations will expand, influencing the interactions between the water–energy nexus and society. However, a major challenge is integration of social dimensions within electricity generation. To address this, we generate a baseline dataset using US public data (2014–2019) from the Energy Information Administration and US Bureau of Labor Statistics. We identify the rate of energy consumed, CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions generated, and water used per MWh net electricity as well as employee wellbeing per unit MW capacity during electricity generation. Rates of energy consumption (MMBtu/MWh) decreased 4.9%, but water consumption and withdrawal (m3/MWh) both increased 0.93% and 0.31%, respectively. Emissions of CO2, SO2 and NOx decreased 22.64%, 75% and 25% MT/MWh, respectively. Thermoelectric cooling withdrawal and consumption is led by natural gas (50.07%, 38.31%), coal (29.61%, 25.07%), and nuclear energies (13.55%, 18.99%). Electric power generation contributes 0.06 injuries–illnesses/TWh and 0.001 fatalities/TWh, of which fossil fuels contributed 70% and 15%, respectively. Fossil fuels led in average annual employment (0.02 employees/MW) with low cost salaries (USD 0.09/MW) likely due to high collective capacity, which is declining. Estimated rates in this study and framework will aid power industry transition and operational decision makers.
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    Journal Title
    Energies
    Volume
    14
    Issue
    9
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092633
    Copyright Statement
    © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
    Subject
    Physical sciences
    Engineering
    Science & Technology
    Energy & Fuels
    electricity generation
    water-energy nexus
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/406222
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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