Lake Powell: Water or Electricity?

Via CNN, an article on how Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West’s megadrought – water or electricity: Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, is drying up. The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir’s Glen Canyon Dam. […]

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Drought’s Impact On California’s Hydropower and What It Means For Clean Energy

Via MIT’s Technology Review, an article on how droughts are cutting into California’s hydropower and what that means for clean energy: The droughts that swept across the western US in 2021 sparked wildfires and damaged crops. But the historic lack of water also had an impact on one of California’s key sources of renewable energy: […]

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Solar Panel Cleaning Innovation Could Save Billions of Gallons of Water

Via Renewable Energy World, a report on a new innovation that will significantly reduce the watergy footprint of solar power: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a method for cleaning solar panels that could potentially save billions of gallons of water. “The water footprint of the solar industry is mind boggling,” said […]

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Thailand’s Floating Hydro-Solar Power Project

Via Solar Daily, a look at Thailand’s green push with floating hydro-solar power project A vast array of solar panels floats on the shimmering waters of a reservoir in northeast Thailand, symbolising the kingdom’s drive towards clean energy as it seeks carbon neutrality by 2050. The immense installation, covering 720,000 square metres of water surface, is […]

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As Warming and Drought Increase, A New Case for Ending Big Dams

Via Yale’s e360, an article on how climate change, bringing dried-up reservoirs and increased methane releases, should spell the end of big hydropower: s the hydroelectric dam industry tries to reposition itself as a climate change solution, more and more evidence shows that climate change actually undermines the case for hydro dams. Gone are the […]

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Europe’s Largest Floating Solar Farm Underway in Netherlands

Via Bloomberg, an article on a new floating solar farm in the Netherlands: German renewable energy developer Baywa r.e. has begun constructing what will be the largest floating solar farm outside of China. The 27-megawatt Bomhofsplas solar farm is set to include 73,000 solar panels on a sandpit lake in Zwolle in the Netherlands, the company said […]

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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”