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 JACOB GRANIT: “WATER SHOULD NOT BE A CONSTRAINED TO ENERGY PRODUCTION”
ORSAM Water Research Program Specialist Dr. Tuğba Evrim Maden talked to Mr. Jakob Granit, Programme Director at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) after the meeting entitled, “The Water-Energy-Security Nexus” that was organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Washington, on January 17th 2012. During the interview, Jakob Granit evaluated hydropower energy in the world and the effect of water shortage, which is foreseen to increase in the forthcoming period, on energy sources. “What we see is that we need to develop a much better understanding of the role of water in energy production so that water will not be a constrained to energy production” said Jakob Granit.
ORSAM: Mr. Granit, could you please introduce yourself in brief?
Jakob GRANIT: I am Geographer with a special interest in the political economy of transboundary water resources management and development. I am a Director at the Knowledge Services Department at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) with responsibility for advisory services and applied research in policy for public and private clients global. I have worked for the World Bank as Sr. Water Resources Management Specialist as a Cluster Team Leader for the multi-sector and multi-cultural World Bank Nile team providing advisory services, institutional building advice, and project design support to clients in East, Central and Southern Africa. Previously I worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida) and managed a transboundary water resources initiative for the Southern Africa region.
ORSAM: Compared to water need of humanity, what is the dimension of electricity need?
GRANIT: Estimates suggest that about 1.6 billion people lack of access to modern electricity for cooking, lighting and heating. To meet the current service gaps for these customers and future demands from growing populations due to economic transformation of societies, global energy consumption is projected to grow by close to 49 percent by 2035. Much of this growth in energy demand will be in non-OECD countries. Water is required to produce energy for fuel production and power generation, and energy is needed to move and cleanwater through distribution and treatment systems. This link is usually referred to as the “water and energy nexus”.
ORSAM: What are the resources used for energy generation across the world?
GRANIT: Fossil fuels contribute 85% of the total global primary energy demand in 2008. Today only about 13 percent of the primary energy demand is met by renewable energy which in this context refers to hydro, bio, wind, solar, and ocean power. Hydropower stands for 86 percent of the global renewable electric power production with significant potential especially in developing and emerging economies.
ORSAM: Could you assess the energy generation resources by comparing with each others in terms of developed countries, developing countries and underdeveloped countries?
Much of this growth in energy demand will be in non-OECD countries. There is a huge reliance on fossil fuels to meet primary energy demand and particulary the use of coal.
ORSAM: What does “access to modern electricity” come to mean?
GRANIT: Modern electricity means that households and industry has accessed to a reliable source of electricity for their needs such as cooking, lighting, manufacturing etc.
ORSAM: While energy is used in various fields such as pumping, carrying and treating water, energy is generated from water as well, could you explain this mutual relation a little?
GRANIT: A key example is the generation of hydropower from gravity flow of water.
ORSAM: You have talked about two kinds of water shortage; one of them is quantity shortage, and the other is water shortage stemming from technological and economic limitations, could you explain it to us?
GRANIT: Water scarcity can be because of political and economic limitations to manage and develop water resources for productive uses. Many countries have access to water but do not have the institutional capacity nor the capacity to finance their investment needs on a market. This can be because the market is not functioning or constraints participation by water managers and suppliers exists. Well functioning water laws and regulations are necessary and compliance need to be monitoried and followed up. From a technical point of view it can mean that countries do not have the adequate data and information availabe to assess their raw water resources or how the water resources contribute to build value in society.
ORSAM: What is the extent of water's place in energy generation, and what is the tendency for the forthcoming years?
GRANIT: Electricity is the world’s fastest-growing form of energy consumption for end use purposes according to the IEO projected reference case 2007 – 2035. Consumption is estimated to increase 87% by 2035 (ibid). Electricity is used to meet an increasing portion of the world’s total energy demand and grows faster than liquid fuels, natural gas, and coal in all end-use sectors other than transportation. Coal will continue to be the fuel used most for electric power production at the global level according to baseline scenarios by the IEA. In 2007, coal-fired generation accounted for 42% of world electricity supply and in 2035 its share is predicted to increase marginally to 43%. One explanation for the development of coal fuelled generation is the attractiveness in cost compared to other sources. The need for water in all aspects of the power generation chain needs to be better understood at the local, national and regional level to see if water can be a constraint for electricity generation considering all other competing uses for water in an economy and to ensure the generation of ecosystem goods and services.
ORSAM: What is the situation when we evaluate hydropower energy generation in terms of the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the U.S., and Southern Asia?
GRANIT: Hydropower in U.S. and Europe has been developed to a large extent and currently there is limited investment in new hydropower schemes except perhaps for pump storage schemes in some power grids to take advantage of the ability to provide peak power in hybrid systems that has a major load of itermittent renewable power sources. In Africa and Southern Asia there is still large potential to develop hydropower. Lessons learned on how to develop hydropower to ensure that social and environmental values are not jeopardized exists and need to be implemented as these resources are further developed. There are opportunities to encourage power trade between countries as a way to transfer benefits from water resources development in one region to another using market systems or other mechanisms. In the Middle East Hydropower resources are not so significant anymore. However, some areas with major potential still exists primarily in transboundary basins which means that cooperation between riparian countries will be necessary.
ORSAM: It is foreseen that climate change will further affect arid regions, and will make humid regions more humid. In this respect, what will be the fate of current hydropower projects and forthcoming projects? Especially for the countries which base their energy security on hydropower...
GRANIT: In general IPCC demonstrate that regions that are dry will be drier and regions that are wet will be wetter. To ensure energy security countries will have to diversify into different power generation sources and different sources of fuel. Cooperation across borders and allowing for power trade is another mechanisms and allow for a balancing of different sources of power. From a technical perspective detailed analysis of climate change at a local and sub-regional scale will have to be undertaken to assess if a hydropower scheme built long time back needs to be changed, the dam wall heightened, spill ways redesigned etc.
ORSAM: How is the water shortage to take place in forthcoming years going to affect other energy resources?
What we see is that we need to develop a much better understanding of the role of water in energy production at the local and regional scale so that water will not be a constrained to energy production. New power generation technologies that demand less water for e.g. cooling should be deployed. There are opportunities to encourage the use of power generation technologies that consume less water and to interconnect isolated grids and for example to allow for smart grid technology to allow for independent producers from a houshold to an industrial level to participate in the generation of sustainable energy.
ORSAM: Mr. Granit, thank you for taking your valuable time for us.
* This interview was carried out by ORSAM Water Research Programme researcher Dr. Tuğba Evrim Maden on January 17th 2012, in Washington DC. |
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| 22 February 2012 |
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