PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
Energy production is highly dependent on water, either as hydropower or via cooling of thermoelectric generators, and therefore vulnerable during droughts and heatwaves. This project seeks to understand the current and future global impacts of climate change on energy production and the environment, and implications for meeting emissions policy targets.
Project Description
Sustainably meeting the electricity demands of the global population is a grand challenge to society. Electricity generation is highly dependent on water, either as hydropower (16% of global production) or via cooling of thermoelectric power plants (70% globally), and therefore vulnerable during droughts and heatwaves. Recent work has evaluated this globally [1] showing reduced production by up to 10% during regional drought. With climate change, drought increases will likely make this more problematic, and particularly in the developing world where there are major investments in hydropower. Other regional work [2] has shown that drought-induced curtailment leads to switching to fossil fuel-based production with increases in greenhouse gas emissions, with implications for meeting emissions policy targets.
Despite its significance, little is known about how production and emissions are impacted globally and the environmental impacts on rivers via changes in water flows and temperatures, and how this will change under future climates and energy policies. This project will make first estimates of the global impact of drought/heatwaves on electricity production and associated enhanced emissions and environmental impacts under historic and future scenarios. The research will involve coupling existing models of hydrology and energy production, and running modelling experiments. The impacts on environmental parameters such as low flows and water temperature will be estimated. Policy implications will be evaluated and trade-offs between production and environmental impact will be evaluated. The research findings will have implications for policy such as the UK net-zero emissions target and the Paris agreement.
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the School of Geography and Environmental. Specific training will include:
- Modeling of hydrology/water quality, power generation and environmental indicators.
- Large climate/hydrological dataset processing and analysis.
- Computational approaches, including parallel programming.
- Development of climate and policy scenarios, and associated model experiments
- Analytical skills in assessing climate-energy-environment feedbacks and trade-offs in water dependent systems.
- Communication of research findings at conferences and in peer-reviewed journals.
- Translation of research findings to policy relevant contexts, such as via policy briefs
[1] Van Vliet, M., Sheffield, J., Wiberg, D., & Wood, E. (2016). Impacts of recent drought and warm years on water resources and electricity supply worldwide. Environmental Research Letters, 11(12), 1-10. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/124021
[2] Herrera-Estrada, J., N. S. Diffenbaugh, F. Wagner, A. Craft, J. Sheffield. Response of electricity sector air pollution emissions to drought conditions in the western United States. Environmental Research Letters, 2018; 13 (12): 124032 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aaf07b
