Northern Arizona University

Energy Research

The Interrelations of Water and Energy
Water and energy are rarely considered together although their infrastructures are inextricably linked. CSE Deputy Director Gary Deason explores these relationships in the Intermountain West where water is used for cooling electrical generating plants and where electricity is used to move water over vast distances and high elevations. Dominated by coal and gas fired steam generating plants, electrical generation in the region consumes over 650 million gallons of water per day, primarily for condensing steam that has been used to drive turbines (more...)

Energy and Water on Arizona Farms and Ranches
Funded by NAU's ERDENE Program, this study assesses water and energy use in Arizona ranching and farming. The research seeks to identifies opportunities for improving water and energy efficiency and implementing renewable energy in ranching and farming in Arizona, performs three case studies to identify and analyze the technical, practical and economic feasibility of employing specific water efficiency and energy efficiency measures, and defines the components of a "toolkit" that ranchers and farmers could use to identify economically feasible water efficiency, energy efficiency, and renewable energy improvements to their operations (more...)

New Energy Sources under Review at Northern Arizona University
Better efficiency and new renewable energy sources are needed to help meet our nation's present and future energy needs, assist national security and reduce negative environmental impacts. Universities consume large amounts of energy at costs that increase annually. In the near future, NAU will implement energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives through the installation of a new photovoltaic (PV) array and one or possibly two biomass generators on campus (more...)

A Water and Energy Fact Sheet

Compiled by the CSE in September 2005, this document provides statistics from the supply side such as the amount of water used for electrical generation and the demand side such as the amount of water and electricity used for agriculture (more...)

   

CSE is proud to be in our new home in the Applied Research and Development Building - one of the most efficient buildings in the world!  The ARD building has been granted the US Green Building Council's LEED "Platinum" certification, the highest level attainable.