Click Green: UK energy policy could trigger future water shortages and blackouts

Experts at Newcastle University are warning the Government that its current thinking on future energy generation risks locking the UK into a situation where water availability could threaten energy security and cause blackouts. 

Now the researchers are calling on policymakers to give greater consideration to the electricity sector’s ‘water footprint’, to minimise the risk of power stations having to reduce production or, in extreme scenarios, shut down altogether if water shortages mean they cannot remain operational.

In a paper to be published in Global Environmental Change, Ed Byers from Newcastle University’s School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, with co-authors Dr Jaime Amezaga, also from Newcastle University, and Professor Jim Hall from the University of Oxford, has evaluated the demands for cooling water from the UK electricity sector. 

The researchers analysed the current and likely future levels of water abstraction and consumption for six potential future energy pathways, including four pathways identified by DECC in its 2011 Carbon Plan.

The research shows that up to 2030, all six of the pathways studied reduce water intensity as well as resulting in lower levels of carbon dioxide. This is mainly due to closure of coal capacity from the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive, as well as a transition to cooling systems which use less water. But from 2030-2050 results diverged.  MORE