Europe Energy Briefs: Europe’s energy-water nexus

A new water resilience strategy for Europe addresses industry and energy among areas for action towards building a ‘water-smart economy’.

The basis of the new strategy, which was adopted earlier in June, is aimed to set out a pathway to make Europe water resilient with clean and affordable water for all by 2050 by developing a well-functioning water cycle, drawing on the same Green Deal – among other EU legislation – as the energy and other sectors.

Like the energy sector, the water sector is being impacted by global issues such as extreme weather events with droughts and flooding with the potential for disruption of supplies and the drive for net zero by 2050.

Although the two are distinct sectors, they share much in common, for example the need for digitalisation, the potential for smart meters and analytics and other ‘smart’ technologies, the demand for more efficient use of the resource and the necessity for rigorous physical and cybersecurity measures over a geographically spread network infrastructure.

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Moreover, when it comes to water use in housing and city planning, saving energy and saving water should always go hand in hand.

Setting the scene, the strategy document states that “we can no longer take water for granted” and that “access to clean and affordable water is a human right and a public good”.

And, “investing in sustainable water management and innovation will strengthen Europe's businesses and boost competitiveness” and “water resilience is a significant business opportunity for EU industry”.

The first objective of the strategy is on restoring the water supply and it issues a call for member states to fully implement existing EU legislation and actions including improving water retention and storage on land and tackling and limiting pollutants in water.

‘Smartening’ water

The second, on building a water-smart economy – and the most relevant to the energy sector – calls for reductions in demand across all sectors of the economy, by promoting water savings, efficiency and reuse and with increased supply as the last resort option.

Recommendations include a ‘water efficiency first’ principle, similar in approach to the ‘energy efficiency first’ principle, with the aim to enhance water efficiency by at least 10% by 2030.

Others are improved resource data gathering and the deployment of smart water metering through a ‘Water infrastructure and smart metering for all’ initiative.

The strategy states that particular attention must be placed on assessing and limiting the water needs that come with the clean industrial and digital transformation and to support it through water smart planning.

Key sectors for the EU’s strategic autonomy such as battery production, semiconductors, hydrogen, microchips and data centres consume large volumes of often ultra-pure water. At the same time, advancing the clean energy transition and the decarbonisation of the EU energy system will help to enhance water management.

In particular, to promote water savings across data centres, the Commission intends to rate their energy efficiency and overall sustainability and propose minimum performance standards, including for water consumption.

In this context, with growing initiatives in data centres to deliver excess heat to heating networks, this possibility will need to be taken account of.

The Commission also commits to enhancing existing visualisation tools combining environmental data and data related to the water and energy grids in order to support member states in identifying the best areas for setting up water intensive businesses.

Regarding water reuse in energy production and industrial processes as well as agriculture, a water reuse regulation is planned for mid-2028. Currently only 2.4% of wastewater is reused in the EU.

For public water supply, about 13% of the EU's water consumption, the focus must be on fighting leakages and unintended losses, supported by digital tools. Member states with water supply leakage levels exceeding the EU-wide threshold – to be set by 2028 – will have to present national action plans to reduce leakages across their supply networks by 2030.

Then third and last is empowering consumers and other users and clean and affordable water for all, with actions including water efficiency product labelling and more emphasis on public involvement in water management.

The new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which supports energy efficiency including hot water efficiency as one of its objectives, and the New European Bauhaus on food systems also are considered to provide significant opportunities to boost efforts towards water resilience across the built environment, the strategy adds.

Enablers

Other issues addressed in the strategy include water governance, finance and research innovation and the potential of digitalisation and AI to accelerate water management.

In this context an action plan on AI in the water sector – parallel to that currently under development – is planned, focussed on digital solution deployment and data sharing.

Similar to the Copernicus Energy Hub, a Copernicus Water Hub also is due to be launched as a ‘one stop shop’ for Earth observation products relevant to water management.

So, another policy document from the European Commission and the message is clear – like energy, water efficiency is under the spotlight and will need to be addressed, if not already, by industrial including power sector users.

Watch this space for relevant updates.