QUICK NEWS, March 5: Climate Change Means Water Shortages; New Energy To Keep Booming In 2019

Climate Change Means Water Shortages Population and Climate Change Point to Future Water Shortages; A new study suggests that reductions in agricultural water use will probably play the biggest role in limiting future water shortages.

28 February 2019 (Earth and Space Science News)

“Climate change plus population growth are setting the stage for water shortages in parts of the U.S. long before the end of the century…Even efforts to use water more efficiently in municipal and industrial sectors won’t be enough to stave off shortages…[According to new U.S. Forest Service research, reductions] in agricultural water use will probably play the biggest role in limiting future water shortages…[Researchers found serious challenges are likely] in some regions of the U.S., notably the central and southern Great Plains, the Southwest and central Rocky Mountain States, and California, and also some areas in the South and the Midwest…

click to enlarge

The heart of the new analysis is a comparison of future water supply versus estimated water demand in different water-using sectors, like industry and agriculture…[R]eductions in per-capita water use rates are likely in most water-use sectors, but will be insufficient to avoid impending water shortages…Increasing the size of reservoirs does not look promising for fending off water shortages…Further reductions in groundwater reserves and greater diversions of in-stream flows could help…but come with serious social and environmental costs. If those costs are to be avoided, improvements in irrigation efficiency will need to become a high priority, and further transfers of water from agriculture to other sectors will likely be essential…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

New Energy To Keep Booming In 2019 New electric generating capacity in 2019 will come from renewables and natural gas

Cara Marcy, January 10, 2019 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

“…23.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity additions and 8.3 GW of capacity retirements are expected for the U.S. electric power sector in 2019. The utility-scale capacity additions consist primarily of wind (46%), natural gas (34%), and solar photovoltaics (18%), with the remaining 2% consisting primarily of other renewables and battery storage capacity…A total of 10.9 GW of wind capacity is currently scheduled to come online in 2019...Planned natural gas capacity additions are primarily in the form of combined-cycle plants (6.1 GW) and combustion-turbine plants (1.4 GW)…[Solar is scheduled to add 4.3 GW of utility-scale electric power sector solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity…[and] an additional 3.9 GW of small-scale solar PV capacity…

click to enlarge

…Scheduled capacity retirements for 2019 primarily consist of coal (53%), natural gas (27%), and nuclear (18%), with a single hydroelectric plant…and other smaller renewable and petroleum capacity accounting for the remaining 2%...Most of the coal retirements are scheduled to occur at the end of 2019. Half of the planned retirement capacity for coal is at a single plant, Navajo, located in Arizona…The scheduled natural gas retirements (2.2 GW) consist mostly (2.0 GW) of steam turbine plants…that came online in the 1950s or 1960s…Two nuclear plants totaling 1.5 GW are currently scheduled to retire in 2019…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet