Unlocking the Impacts of COVID-19 Lockdowns: Changes in Thermal Electricity Generation Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Europe,Environmental Science & Technology Letters

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Unlocking the Impacts of COVID-19 Lockdowns: Changes in Thermal Electricity Generation Water Footprint and Virtual Water Trade in Europe
Environmental Science & Technology Letters ( IF 8.9 ) Pub Date : 2020-07-20 , DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00381
Mario Roidt _{1,

2,

3} , Christopher M Chini ₄ , Ashlynn S Stillwell ₅ , Andrea Cominola _{1,

2}

Affiliation

Drastic changes in electricity demand have been observed since March 2020 in Europe, after several countries implemented lockdown-like measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. We investigate the sensitivity of the electricity–water nexus in the European electric grid to large-scale behavior changes during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown-like measures. We quantify changes in the blue virtual water trade between five European countries heavily affected by COVID-19 during the same period. As a result, the consumptive water footprint of thermal power plant operations in Europe decreased by 1.77 × 10⁶ m³/day during the COVID-19 lockdowns, compared to the average of the past four years. Reduced electricity demand accounts for 16% (0.29 × 10⁶ m³/day) of the decrease, while the remainder is attributable to changes in the electricity generation mix toward less water-intensive technologies before 2020 and during lockdowns. Virtual water transfers associated with electricity were also affected: Italy, a hotspot of COVID-19, reduced its water footprint by 8.4% and its virtual water imports by 70,700 m³/day. Germany and France slightly reduced their domestic water footprint of electricity but increased their virtual water imports. These findings improve our understanding of the impacts of large-scale behavior and technological changes to the European electricity–water nexus.

中文翻译：

释放 COVID-19 封锁的影响：欧洲火力发电水足迹和虚拟水贸易的变化

自 2020 年 3 月以来，在多个国家实施了类似封锁的措施以遏制 COVID-19 的传播后，欧洲的电力需求发生了巨大变化。我们调查了欧洲电网中的水电关系对 COVID-19 大流行封锁措施期间大规模行为变化的敏感性。我们量化了同一时期受 COVID-19 严重影响的五个欧洲国家之间蓝色虚拟水贸易的变化。因此，在 COVID-19 封锁期间，欧洲火电厂运营的消耗水足迹比过去四年的平均水平减少了 1.77 × 10 ⁶ m ^{3 /天。}电力需求减少占减少量的 16%（0.29 × 10 ⁶ m ³ /天），其余部分归因于 2020 年之前和封锁期间发电结构的变化，转向用水强度较低的技术。与电力相关的虚拟水传输也受到影响：作为 COVID-19 的热点地区意大利，其水足迹减少了 8.4%，虚拟水进口量减少了 70,700 m 3 /^天。德国和法国略微减少了国内电力水足迹，但增加了虚拟水进口。这些发现提高了我们对大规模行为和技术变革对欧洲水电关系影响的理解。

更新日期：2020-09-08

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