Strategic Science & Technology

Energy-Environment Balance

Delivering balanced solutions for protecting

the global environment while sustaining
economic growth and improving quality of
life worldwide

EPRI STRATEGY The Energy-Environment Balance program

focuses on the development of effective solutions for
ensuring a sustainable energy future. Strategic work will
provide policymakers, energy and other companies, and
additional stakeholders with advanced science and
technology to meet growing demands for energy and other
resources while protecting the environment and public
health and enhancing economic productivity and quality of
life. These solutions will enable informed decision-making
on critical local, regional, and global challenges, including
climate change and water resource management.

STRATEGIC ELEMENTS Work being conducted under the

INTEGRATING ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEEDS
Energy/Environment Balance program is described below.
Environmental issues associated with meeting the growing
worldwide demand for energy are becoming increasingly
Climate Adaptation Program: This continuing strategic
complex and interconnected. Successful resolution of these
program focuses on promoting adaptation as an effective
issues, which include managing climate change and its
option for mitigating the impacts of climate change on
impacts, is critical to worldwide efforts focused on
economic and ecological systems and public health. A
enhancing quality of life in the developed world and raising
workshop and other outreach efforts have proven quite
living standards for billions of impoverished people—
successful in triggering collaborative R&D: Current EPRI
without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet
projects are jointly funded by federal government agencies,
their needs and desires.
as well as the California Energy Commission. In addition,
EPRI-funded researchers have published a number of peer-
As such, resolving the energy/carbon conflict and meeting
reviewed papers, and a book is scheduled to be available
the global sustainability challenge are two of the societal
during summer 2001. The book, Global Warming and The
objectives called for by the Electricity Technology
American Economy: A Regional Assessment, analyzes the
Roadmap, a guide to the R&D required to meet global
potential effects of climate change on key market sectors in
energy needs for the next 50 years and beyond. To meet
seven U.S. regions. Analyses explicitly account for the role
these objectives, there must be broad agreement among
of adaptation in reducing negative climate impacts. Findings
governments, corporations, nongovernmental organizations,
indicate that adaptation does mitigate the potential for
and other stakeholders that energy and environmental needs
damage by reducing negative impacts and creating benefits.
can be brought into harmony in a cost-effective manner. In
Crude, aggregate estimates suggest that adaptation can
addition, advanced scientific knowledge and innovative
reduce net damages or increase net benefits by 20 to 30%.
technology are required to foster and support this
consensus—and to enable effective individual and collective
Chinese Energy Strategy: China is characterized by a huge
actions focused on meeting requirements for energy and
and growing population, high rates of industrialization and
other critical resources in a sustainable manner.
infrastructure development, and abundant coal supplies. The

Strategic Science & Technology May 2001

evolution of China’s rapidly changing energy sector will
have huge impacts on worldwide efforts to manage
interconnected energy and environmental challenges. This
study explores relations between regulatory reforms in the
Chinese energy sector, current and projected infrastructure
development trends, and environmental issues.
Integrated Water-Energy Management: The Roadmap
and other long-range studies foresee water management as
perhaps the critical resource issue of the 21st century. As
such, efforts to achieve the Roadmap’s societal objectives
must be inextricably linked with work to balance multiple,
sometimes conflicting needs for water. Water availability
may emerge as a limiting factor as EPRI and others seek to
enhance the economic and environmental performance of
energy generation and other industrial processes and to
provide access to electricity for the some 2 billion people
worldwide without power.
This project is exploring relations between water use and
availability and economic and environmental sustainability,
first in the United States and then in other countries. To
date, screening studies have been conducted on the
following topics: regional U.S. freshwater availability,
quality, and anticipated demand; electricity requirements for
U.S. freshwater supply and wastewater treatment by
economic sector; and freshwater use by U.S. power plants
today and in the future. These studies provide the basis for
ongoing development of an R&D plan designed to provide
management strategies and advanced technologies for
helping catalyze a fundamental restructuring in the use,
treatment, and recycling of limited water resources.
Genetic Engineering for Trace Element Removal:
Because water quality problems place significant constraints
on water availability, advanced treatment technologies are
critical for effective resource management. Constructed
wetlands treatment systems represent an environmentally
preferred technology for removing heavy metals and other
constituents from surface water discharges. In strategic
research, wetland plants are being genetically engineered to
increase uptake, volatilization, and removal of specific
contaminants from discharges at power plants, combustion
by-product management sites, and other facilities. Superior
phytoremediation capabilities have been demonstrated in
several transgenic plant lines, and two patent applications
EPRI • 3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94304 • PO Box 10412, Palo Alto, California 94303 USA
800.313.3774 • 650.855.2121 • askepri@epri.com • www.epri.com
have been filed. Ongoing work focuses on refining and
extending the current results to further advance the
effectiveness and applicability of constructed wetlands.
BUSINESS IMPACT The Energy-Environment Balance
program is developing a knowledge base and advanced
technologies and strategies for addressing climate change,
water resource management, and other complex challenges
to a sustainable energy future. These deliverables will lead
to more informed, effective policymaking, as well as provide
energy and other companies with tools for reducing costs,
enhancing compliance, and demonstrating stewardship.
PUBLIC BENEFIT The Energy-Environment Balance
program addresses the following societal objectives defined
by the Electricity Technology Roadmap:
• Resolving the carbon/energy conflict
• Meeting the global sustainability challenge
CONTACTS For information, contact the EPRI Customer
Assistance Center, (800) 313.3774, askepri@epri.com. For
technical queries, contact Stan Sussman, 650.855.2581,
ssussman@epri.com. For periodic updates on the Energy-
Environment Balance program’s activities, contact
sst@epri.com or visit www.epri.com.
ABOUT SS&T EPRI Strategic Science & Technology
(SS&T) focuses on fundamental, innovative, and
crosscutting science and technology with the greatest
potential for delivering value to EPRI’s members, the
customers they serve, and society as a whole. Strategic
programs pursue the critical destinations identified in
EPRI’s Electricity Technology Roadmap: strengthening
the power delivery infrastructure, enabling the digital
economy, accelerating economic growth and productivity,
resolving the energy/carbon conflict, and meeting the
global sustainability challenge. SS&T provides a bridge
connecting the technology goals necessary to the Roadmap
destinations with the 3-year strategic plans for each of
EPRI’s base program R&D sectors.
© 2001 Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Inc. All rights reserved.
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the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. EPRI. ELECTRIFY THE WORLD
is a service mark of the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc.
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