Articles > Innovators, leaders and thinkers come together for The Energy Water Nexus event

NEW YORK – Solar One and the New York City Accelerator for a Clean and Renewable Economy (NYC ACRE) at Polytechnic Institute of New York University presented “The Energy Water Nexus”, their event for Climate Week NYC 2011, to a full house at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space on Thursday, September 22. The fourth event of Solar One’s and NYC ACRE’s discussion series and online forum Clean Energy Connections, The Energy-Water Nexus brought together policy thinkers, industry leaders, and innovators to engage on how to responsibly maintain the relationship of energy and water for generations to come.

 

Rupert Posner, Global Director of Energy at The Climate Group, set the scope of the issue in his opening remarks. As the world faces decreasing resources for both energy and water the interconnections of the two become clearer. Some of the largest energy users are water treatment plants and one of the greatest users of water are power plants. Energy production, in fact, takes up about 20% of the water supply. The dramatic environmental implications of this statistic only reemphasize the absolute necessity for a massive scale-up of clean energy development and production. 

 

The panel discussion had broad agreement on many of the issues but also spirited debate on some of the specifics. All supported increased water efficiency combined with efforts to reduce demand as to help deal with a growing world population. As Sheeraz Hajj, CEO of Cleantech Group, said, “Water efficiency just makes sense.” Panelists mentioned opportunities in automation, sensors, and software to bring about a smarter water grid that can respond more efficiently to demand responses. Frank Zammataro, President of Rentricity, presented his own company’s new technology which recovers energy from gravity-fed water. Zammataro pointed out also that in most cities, water and power lines share the same space and opportunities may exist to bring these together for automation and monitoring.

 

Diana Glassman, board member of The World Policy Institute and author of a recent paper on the energy-water nexus, called for continuing civic debate of the potential benefits and drawbacks of various technologies and energy extraction practices like hydraulic fracking. Pointing out the trade-offs in water usage for various energy supplies, Glassman said, “What’s green is not necessarily what’s blue.” 

 

Policy and pricing were a common problem for water efficiency increases raised by panelists. Jeff Fulgham, COO of Banyan Water, asked the audience, “Who pays a water bill?” which led to only a few raised hands. Fulgham noted that subsidies and low prices provided little incentive for efficiency by end-users and provided little money for public utilities to update water infrastructure with new efficiency technologies. Glassman noted that due to the ties of subsidization to agriculture, change in policy at the national level seemed impossible. She instead saw change as happening bottom-up from increased consumer and municipal involvement. 

 

Despite pointing out the many barriers to progress that remain and disagreement about how precisely to overcome them, as moderator Adam Aston, Senior Writer for GreenBiz.com, pointed out, the panel as a whole seemed surprisingly positive about the possibilities of change. Panelists all held the view that an increasing number of people, especially the young, are becoming more knowledgeable about these issues and are changing their behavior. However, even traditional industry and investment, including those involved in fracking, are looking for new solutions for maintaining water quality and access while minimizing energy and water losses. 

 

In addition to the full audience at the Greene Performance Space, the panel was broadcast worldwide via web stream by Greentech Media. Questions were also taken through via Twitter through @CleanECNYC #CleanNRGx. A recording of the live stream is available on the web at http://www.livestream.com/greentechmedia.

 

The panel concluded with a reminder that everybody has a role to play in overcoming the challenges of water and energy, even if it’s as simple as turning off the tap when brushing your teeth.

 

Panelists:

- Jeff Fulgham, COO Banyan Water 

- Sheeraz Haji, CEO, Cleantech Group

- Diana Glassman, Board Member, The World Policy Institute 

- Frank Zammataro, President and Founder, Rentricity

 

Moderator:

- Adam Aston, Senior Writer, Green Biz.com