Page - 20 - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

20 Clean Water Using Solar and Wind: Outside the Power Grid 2.1 THE UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted by the international community in 2015 as part of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development (UN WWDR, 2014). It should be recognised that there are a lot of interlinkages between the various SDGs. Therefore, it is important to adopt an integrated approach towards their implementation. Sufficient energy and water will be needed to meet nearly all the development goals. SDG6 – clean water and sanitation – depends a lot on the availability of renewable energy, recognising that much of conventional energy generation today depends on the availability of water. SDG7 – access to affordable and reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all – depends strongly on the development of modern renewables like solar PV and wind. The strong links between SGD6 and SDG7 are increasingly recognised (Olsson, 2015; IRENA, 2017a). The energy-water-food nexus is a growing concern for decision makers globally (WEC, 2016). Pumping and water treatment by biological processes or desalination will increase the supply of clean water. Conventional electric power technologies, such as thermal power plants, consume large volumes of water for cooling, while solar PV and wind generation have negligible water consumption. As already noted, solar PV and wind power consume up to 200 times less water than thermal power plants. Furthermore, renewable energy can provide clean water using pumping energy and various treatments including desalination. It should be recognised that the role of renewable energy and water solutions will directly and indirectly contribute to all the other 15 SDGs. This is further elaborated in Table 2.1. Water supply using renewable energy is a key technology to meet the UN SDGs. A workshop was conducted in 2016 at the Massachusetts Making renewable energy and water solutions available will directly and indirectly contribute to all the other 15 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user