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Making Batteries Takes Lots of Lithium: Almost Half of It Could Come from Pennsylvania Wastewater
Most batteries used in technology like smartwatches and electric cars are made with lithium that travels across the world before even getting to manufacturers. But what if nearly half of the lithium used in the U.S. could come from Pennsylvania wastewater?
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Texas Delegation Urges Congress to Withhold Aid to Mexico Over Water Treaty Dispute
A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers are demanding appropriators withhold funds for the country until Mexico lives up to its end of a 1944 water treaty that requires it to send 1.75 million acre-feet to the U.S. every five years.
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Decayed Power Pole Sparked the Largest Wildfire in State History, Texas House Committee Confirms
A decayed utility pole that broke, causing power wires to fall on dry grass in the Texas Panhandle, sparked the state’s largest wildfire in history. A lack of air support and ineffective coordination hurt efforts to contain this year’s Panhandle fires, the committee said.
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Resilient Power Systems in the Context of Climate Change
As extreme weather events increase in frequency and society’s dependence on electricity grows, scientists are focusing on issues at the nexus of water and energy, recognizing that water and energy systems are strongly coupled and already stressed.
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Securing Competitiveness of Energy-Intensive industries Through Relocation: The Pulling Power of Renewables
Countries with limited potential for renewables could save up to 20 percent of costs for green steel and up to 40 percent for green chemicals from green hydrogen if they relocated their energy-intensive production and would import from countries where renewable energy is cheaper.
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New Cybersecurity Center to Protect Grids Integrated with Renewables, Microgrids
Bringing renewable energy to the power grid raises all kinds of “internet-of-things” issues because “everything is connected,” says an expert. Solar inverters are connected to the internet. Wind farm controllers are connected to the internet. And with each internet connection, energy resources distributed across the countryside are potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks.
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First Regional Cybersecurity Center to Protect the Nation’s Electricity Grid
U.S. Department of Energy awards $10 million grant to develop innovative solutions to mitigating cyber threats across the U.S. A new center will bring together experts from the private sector, academia and government to share information and generate innovative real-world solutions to protect the nation’s power grid and other key sectors.
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For the Colorado River and Beyond, a New Market Could Save the Day
The Colorado River, “the lifeblood of the West,” is in trouble. Decades of overuse and drought have sharply reduced its water supply, threatening an ecosystem that supports 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland. Stanford economist Paul Milgrom won a Nobel Prize in part for his role in enabling today’s mobile world. Now he’s tackling a different 21st century challenge: water scarcity.
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Rivers Are the West’s Largest Source of Clean Energy. What Happens When Drought Strikes?
With rivers across the West running low, utilities must get creative if they are to meet demand without increasing emissions.
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Chinese Government Poses 'Bold and Unrelenting' Threat to U.S. Critical Infrastructure: FBI
FBI Director Christopher Wray on 18 April warned that risks the government of China poses to U.S. national and economic security are “upon us now”—and that U.S. critical infrastructure is a prime target. He said that partnerships, joint operations, and private sector vigilance can help us fight back.
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In a First, California Cracks Down on Farms Guzzling Groundwater
In much of the United States, groundwater extraction is unregulated and unlimited. This lack of regulation has allowed farmers nationwide to empty aquifers of trillions of gallons of water for irrigation and livestock. In many places, such as California’s Central Valley, the results have been devastating. California has just imposed a first-of-its-kind mandatory fee on water pumping by farmers in the Tulare Lake subbasin, one of the state’s largest farming areas.
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Sinking Land Increases Risk for Thousands of Coastal Residents
One in 50 people living in two dozen coastal cities in the United States could experience significant flooding by 2050, according to new research. The study projects that in the next three decades as many as 500,000 people could be affected as well as a potential 1 in 35 privately owned properties damaged by flooding.
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Problems with Glen Canyon Dam Could Jeopardize Water Flowing to Western States
Without upgrades to the Glen Canyon dam’s infrastructure, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s ability to get water downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. This may be, in the words of concerned groups, “the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the 40 million people who rely on it.
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Subterranean Storage of Hydrogen
Hydrogen is an important clean fuel: It can be made by splitting water using solar or wind power, it can be used to generate electricity and to power heavy industry, and it could be used to energize fuel-cell-based vehicles. Sandia scientists are using computer simulations and laboratory experiments to see if depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs can be used for storing this carbon-free fuel.
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Accelerating Research and Development for a Secure Water Future
Water and energy are interdependent – water is used to produce nearly every major energy source, and energy is critical to transporting and treating water. A research consortium will continue to lead a DOE desalination hub to drive innovation for sustainable water security.
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The long view
Water Wars: A Historic Agreement Between Mexico and US Is Ramping Up Border Tension
As climate change drives rising temperatures and changes in rainfall, Mexico and the US are in the middle of a conflict over water, putting an additional strain on their relationship. Partly due to constant droughts, Mexico has struggled to maintain its water deliveries for much of the last 25 years, deliveries to which it is obligated by a 1944 water-sharing agreement between the two countries.
Trump Is Fast-Tracking New Coal Mines — Even When They Don’t Make Economic Sense
In Appalachian Tennessee, mines shut down and couldn’t pay their debts. Now a new one is opening under the guise of an “energy emergency.”
Smaller Nuclear Reactors Spark Renewed Interest in a Once-Shunned Energy Source
In the past two years, half the states have taken action to promote nuclear power, from creating nuclear task forces to integrating nuclear into long-term energy plans.
Keeping the Lights on with Nuclear Waste: Radiochemistry Transforms Nuclear Waste into Strategic Materials
How UNLV radiochemistry is pioneering the future of energy in the Southwest by salvaging strategic materials from nuclear dumps –and making it safe.
Model Predicts Long-Term Effects of Nuclear Waste on Underground Disposal Systems
The simulations matched results from an underground lab experiment in Switzerland, suggesting modeling could be used to validate the safety of nuclear disposal sites.