Water, water not everywhere

This entry was posted on 12/30/2007 10:22 PM and is filed under Water problems,Leadership.

Chalk up another problem that can be reduced via a federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy sources.  From a December 2006, Dept. of Energy Report, Energy Demands on Water Resources - Report to Congress on the Interdependency of Energy and Water:

     - ....in calendar year 2000, thermoelectric power generation accounted for 39 percent of all freshwater withdrawals in the U.S., roughly equivalent to water withdrawals for irrigated agriculture;

     - Many power plants, including most of those built since 1980, withdraw much less water but consume most of what they withdraw by evaporative cooling. In 1995, agriculture accounted for 84 percent of total freshwater consumption. Thermoelectric power accounted for 3.3 percent of total freshwater consumption (3.3 billion gallons per day) and represented over 20 percent of nonagricultural water consumption (Solley et al., 1998);

     - The Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects, ..., the U.S. population to grow by about 70 million in the next 25 years and electricity demand to grow by approximately 50 percent (EIA, 2006).  Much of this growth is expected to occur in the Southeast, Southwest, and Far West, where water is already in limited supply.

     - Technologies are available that can reduce water use in the electric sector, including alternative cooling for thermoelectric power plants, wind power, and solar photovoltaics, but cost and economics, among other factors, have limited deployment of these technologies.

     - A 2003 General Accounting Office study showed that most state water managers expect either local or regional water shortages within the next 10 years under average climate conditions (GAO, 2003). Under drought conditions, even more severe water shortages are expected. 

     - If new power plants continue to be built with evaporative cooling, consumption of water for electrical energy production could more than double by 2030 from 3.3 billion gallons per day in 1995 to 7.3 billion gallons per day (Hoffmann et al., 2004).  (my underline)

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So......we're:

    - using our finite supplies of non-renewable energy (fossil fuels and nuclear) to generate electricity in plants that are most often less than 40% efficient, then we're:

    - using our fresh water (which is in shorter and shorter supply, and is creating economic issues in areas of the U.S) to cool plant equipment (which is largely needed BECAUSE of the 60% of wasted energy).

    - there are technologies "available that can reduce water use in the electric sector" (including wind and solar power; coincidently, the same technologies that emit virtually no greenhouse gases), but we're not enacting any policies so these are being developed in significant numbers.

Makes sense....right?
                                            

        

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Comments

• 1/7/2008 7:22 PM Jim Blair wrote:
  Hi,
  
  The January 2008 issue of Scientific American proposes a grand plan to replace coal and natural gas generated electricity with solar.
  
  http://www.earthportal.org/forum/?p=423
  
  This could be the basis of solution to another problem: water for the dry southwest. Note that the solar potential is mostly where water is in short supply, and in the Great Lakes region, sun is limited but water is plentiful.
  
  Some in the dry SW have their eye on water from the Great Lakes (recall the comments of former New Mexico governor Richardson in the recent debate).
  
  So the trade? Great Lakes water in exchange for solar power from the desert. What could be more fair?
  Reply to this
  1. 1/7/2008 11:12 PM Paul Riehemann wrote:
     
     Interesting; we're all in this together, right?.
     
     The problem: electricity from non-renewable sources (fossil fuels and nuclear) is too cheap (because no one is paying the external costs) for solar energy to be economically viable (now).
     
     Let's begin to stop our energy "insanity" by starting to pay the external costs of non-renewable energy by implementing a phased-in, federal tax shift from income to non-renewable energy.
     
     Reply to this

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