Sustainable water-energy nexus in the optimization of the BBC golf-course using renewable energies

ABSTRACT

Water distribution networks and irrigation systems consume high energy quantities that need to be recovered if the water managers want to meet sustainable systems. A sustainability optimization is proposed in this research in order to replace the energy consumption in a golf-course system by renewable solutions joining energy recovery, sustainable urban drainage systems and hybrid solutions (solar panels and wind turbine). Different sustainable approaches were considered in which energy (using PATs), economic and environmental factors were analysed. Both scenarios and analyses showed interesting values related to economic indicators and environmental reductions of CO₂ emissions. The possibility to supply the daily electric consumption in the pumping stations was checked using only renewable systems. Net present value was calculated in different solutions, obtaining positive values as well as the payback period was lower than 6 years. The CO₂ emissions were reduced from 257,000 to 11,500 kgCO₂/year in the most unfavourable scenario.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy recovery
• pump as turbine (PAT)
• efficiency and sustainability
• water distribution networks (WDN)
• smart water grids

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank to the project REDAWN (Reducing Energy Dependency in Atlantic Area Water Networks) EAPA_198/2016 from INTERREG ATLANTIC AREA PROGRAMME 2014-2020, CERIS (CEHIDRO-IST) and the IST-Lab for PATs testing.

Author contributions

All the authors have participated in any step of this research. Particularly a brief description is attached: Helena M. Ramos supervised the whole research was mentor of the idea and defined the methodology. Modesto Pérez-Sánchez and Miguel Zilhao developed the simulation model, prepared the input data and obtained the results. P. Amparo López-Jiménez reviewed the document.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.