ACE07, The World's Water Event^®, will lead you into the future with an unparalleled professional program and an exposition showcasing the world's newest and most important water technology. The event highlights topics that are most relevant to you, including managing utility assets, meeting water supply challenges, complying with new regulations, and communicating the value of water, the last of which is becoming increasingly critical.

Larry Dale and UC Berkeley Participants
Contact: Larry Dale, 510/495-2477, lldale@lbl.gov

Christina Galitsky, EETD-LBNL; Anthony Radspieler Jr., EETD-LBNL; Ernst Worrel, Ecofys

Contact: Christina Galitsky, (510) 486-5137, cgalitsky@lbl.gov

Role In The Energy-Water Nexus

The BEST (Benchmarking and Energy and Water Savings Tool) Winery is a computer-based tool and a handbook designed to provide benchmarking for energy and water use in wineries and identify cost-saving energy and water conservation and efficiency improvements.

A lot of the electricity used in winemaking goes to refrigeration for cooling and cold storage, while the rest is mainly compressed air, hot water or electricity for pumping and the bottling line motors. Cleaning barrels and equipment requires hot water, and so does heating red wine ferments and yeast generator tanks. As with other commercial facilities, enclosed areas for storage and processing require lighting, and many such areas are electrically cooled.

Specific Connection in Energy-Water Nexus

Of all U.S. business sectors, agriculture is the largest consumer of both electricity and water. Most of the electricity used by agriculture goes to pump groundwater at a cost of almost $1.2 billion each year. This combined electricity and water use is concentrated in California and other Western United States, with California farmers using 20 percent of the total U.S. agricultural electricity, or about 10,000 gigawatt-hours (GWH) per year.

The agricultural demand for electricity, which is driven by the scarcity of water, is expected to grow rapidly, because supplies of surface water are scarce and competition for those supplies is growing.