1341032 (Webber). This workshop seeks to facilitate networking and coordination among professional organizations (particularly engineering societies), practitioners, and researchers addressing energy-water nexus concerns and issues. The goal of the workshop is to generate a coherent research agenda that can be used to overcome infrastructure, technical, and societal challenges to implementing solutions that address and mitigate emerging energy-water nexus problems. The workshop will seek to identify research pathways for reducing the water-intensity of providing energy, and the energy-intensity of providing water. The four main specific topics for attention are: (1) managing water demand for the production of power (?water for power?), (2) managing water demand for the production of fuels (?water for fuel?), (3) managing the energy demands of extracting, treating and transporting water (?energy for water?), and (4) managing social, behavioral, policy, and economic structures to enhance water and energy use efficiencies. The workshop will strive to identify the barriers to technology acceptance (whether technical, economic or social) and the research necessary to overcome those barriers. The topics of discussion will include systems integration, materials, component design, information technology, improved processes, social and behavioral sciences, economics, and policy and regulations. The workshop will be organized around introductory talks in each of the theme areas outlining the key challenges and opportunities as they now exist and to provoke further thinking and discussion on current and future needs and how they might be addressed. Then, the workshop will move to small breakouts, with highly engaged participants submitting their input in facilitated sessions. Participation in the workshop will be by invitation only. The workshop is scheduled to be held at NSF on June 10-11, 2013.
This project funded the organization of a Research Workshop on the Energy Water Nexus. The workshop took place June 10-11, 2013 at NSF Headquarters in Arlington, VA. The major goals of this workshop were to 1) identify key research priorities at the energy-water nexus, and 2) to bring together the key stakeholders. More than 250 stakeholders from a cross-section of federal, state and local government along with industry, academia, NGOs, and professional societies were invited to attend the workshop. More than 100 people accepted the invitation and participated in the workshop’s lectures and breakout sessions. The workshop itself was structured with a sequential agenda, tackling four topics in order (noted below), using 3 to 4 parallel breakouts for each topic. The breakouts were used to foster dialog and to collect input from the stakeholders that could be organized into a final summary report. The topics that were covered included 1) Water for the Power Sector, 2) Water for Fuels Production, 3) Energy for Water, and 4) Social, Behavioral, Policy and Communications Issues. In addition to bringing key stakeholders together, the other primary outcome of this project was the creation of a report that identifies the key research needs at the energy-water nexus. That report was submitted December 31, 2013. The report itself has been distributed to the participants and invitees of the workshop, along with many other entities. The findings from that report have also been briefed to relevant federal agencies such as the Department of Energy. Overall, this project helped fill a critical need by creating a research roadmap that could help federal agencies streamline their research programs in a way that will be more efficient and effective for work at the nexus of energy and water.
