Assessment of technology portfolios with enhanced economic and environmental performance for the energy, water and food nexus

In modern day sustainable development, it has become necessary to apply integrated approaches that aid in the understanding of the synergies and trade-offs between various systems and processes which co-exist and utilizing the resources in the energy, water and food nexus has become necessary. The research presented in this paper discusses a probabilistic risk-based approach to assess the diversification of the energy economy, which would particularly play an important role in the enhancement of food security in the State of Qatar. The modern portfolio theory was adopted for this purpose and was used to evaluate energy portfolios with enhanced economic and environmental performance, when compared to the constituent power generation assets. The results obtained thus far demonstrate that a symbiosis between the industries related to energy and biomass waste utilisation could simultaneously help tackle the problem of environmental deterioration and mitigate economic risks, primarily caused by the variabilities in the natural gas and CO₂ prices.