The energy footprint of U.S. irrigation: A first estimate from open data

Abstract

Agricultural irrigation is the largest consumptive use of water in the United States, supporting an enormous farming economy and requiring the use of many pumps. For the first time, we estimate the nationwide energy footprint of this important activity in the energy-water-food nexus. We develop our estimate by combining open agricultural and energy data, starting with pumping costs, from U.S. government sources. We estimate that in 2018, U.S. irrigation consumed 60.6 TWh (0.20%) of total energy, including 37.5 TWh (0.94%) of total electricity, to apply 103 billion m3 (83.4 million ac-ft) of water to 22.6 million ha (55.9 million ac) of cropland. Normalized by water volume, the energy intensity of irrigation is 0.59 kWh/m3 (730 kWh/ac-ft). The estimate aligns with other U.S. energy-for-water studies and may lead to better accounting of this resource consumption at finer temporal and spatial scales. Despite a few limitations, leveraging open data appears to be a promising path for early nexus analyses.

Keywords

• Irrigation
• Agriculture
• Energy
• Water
• Nexus
• Open data