Title
Climate change and CCS increase the water vulnerability of China's thermoelectric power fleet
Author
Jin, Y.
Scherer, L.
Sutanudjaja, E.H.
Tukker, A.
Behrens, P.
Publication year
2022
Abstract
Large numbers of China's thermal power plants are in water-stressed regions. Changes in the availability of water resources due to climate change may impact the vulnerability of regional and national electricity generation. Here we explore this vulnerability for coal-fired power units (CPUs) as the generation-type most exposed to climate risk. We find many plants are already experiencing water scarcity and 120 e176 GW of capacity will be exposed to water scarcity for at least one additional month per year in the 2030s. In the absence of carbon capture and storage (CCS) the national useable capacity of CPUs will increase slightly, mainly due to an increase in water availability for power plants in northern China under all climate scenarios except RCP8.5. However, CCS systems have been identified as essential in China's national roadmap for carbon neutrality and their use represents high water requirements. The addition of CCS significantly exacerbates water vulnerability, leading to further useable-capacity reductions of 7.4 e7.7%. We assess several adaptations and find that early retirement of power plants is most effective, with interregional power transmission also playing an important mitigating role. Our work highlights the need for improved awareness of water resources in electricity planning. © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
Subject
Carbon capture and storage
Climate change
Electricity generation
Power transmission
Water scarcity
Carbon capture
Fossil fuel power plants
Power transmission
Program processors
Thermoelectric power plants
Coal-fired power unit
Electricity-generation
Generation types
Thermal-power plants
Water availability
Water scarcity
Water vulnerabilities
Waters resources
Climate change
carbon sequestration
electricity generation
power plant
thermal power
vulnerability
China
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:1f2288b1-dc80-495b-aef6-d62ccacf42dc
TNO identifier
967462
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
ISSN
0360-5442
Source
Energy, 245 (245)
Document type
article