Brazil To Build World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm Amidst Devastating Drought

Via EcoWatch, a slightly different perspective on the water-energy nexus but one interesting enough to share: With Brazil’s historic drought drying up its hydroelectric plants, the South American country is turning to solar power to help relieve its foreboding energy crisis. Brazil’s devastating drought has depleted its reservoirs causing the nation to consider alternative energy options besides hydropower, which […]

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Clean Energy Opportunities in California’s Water Sector

Via the Union for Concerned Scientists, a new report on watergy challenges and opportunities in California: It takes more than snow and rainfall to keep California’s taps flowing; it demands energy and lots of it, particularly during a record-setting drought. The state’s water and wastewater utilities consume large amounts of electricity to pump, treat, transport, […]

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Requiem For Giant Indian Hydropower Projects?

Via Circle of Blue, an interesting article examining India’s run-of-the-river diplomacy and the likelihood of it building more Himalayan dams: With all the immediate distress and hopeful fervor that has greeted Narendra Modi’s new administration, one of the government’s unyielding themes is the prime minister’s allegiance to running water. Specifically, the swift currents that pour from […]

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Powerful Water, Thirsty Energy

Via AAAS.org, some commentary on the watergy nexus from Noël M. Bakhtian, the Energy-Water Nexus Lead in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy: It’s World Water Day. Designated in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly, March 22 now represents a day to celebrate water. A day to make a difference for the […]

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Win-Win: Reducing Water Use And Greenhouse Gas Emissions In China’s Power Sector

Courtesy of World Resources Institute, an interesting look at the watergy footprint of China’s power sector: China’s power sector is the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and its biggest industrial water user. To meet increasing energy demand, the country may double its installed generation capacity by 2030. As a result, decisions about electricity generation will have profound […]

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Will Water Scarcity Restrict India’s Solar Dream?

Via Third Pole.net, a report on how Narendra Modi’s ambitious solar energy expansion may be scuppered by lack of water, particularly in arid regions where the biggest solar farms are planned: The arid region of Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas aims to produce 100,000 MW of solar power by 2050 Enthusiasm for solar energy has grown […]

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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.”