A recent report from Synapse Energy Economics – prepared for the non-profit Civil Society Institute (CSI) and the Environmental Working Group has revealed some sobering facts about the amount of water used in different methods of generating electricity.
Did you know that it takes almost 380,000 litres of water to produce a single megawatt hour of electricity?
The report, entitled The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels, analyses six different fuels used to generate electricity: biomass, coal, nuclear, natural gas, solar and wind, taking into consideration the impacts of air pollution, climate change, land impacts, planning and cost risk, subsidies and tax incentives, and water amongst others.
With most of the key energy technologies relying heavily on water, it is important to know exactly how much water each uses, especially at this time when water is scarce and many countries are suffering under the stress of devastating droughts.
- Nuclear Power has critical cooling requirements that require around 3 785 litres of water per MWh for reactors that have closed-loop cooling systems, most of which is lost due to evaporation. In reactors with open-loop cooling systems, water usage shoots up to around 150 000 litres per MWh; most of this water is returned at a higher temperature and unfortunately with a lower quality.
- Coal-Fired Power is detrimental to the surrounding eco-systems as mining and coal-ash dump sites often pollute the rivers and even the drinking water. Closed-loop cooling systems use about 1 900 litres per MWh and open-looped cooled coal-fired power plants use approximately 133 000 litres per MWh. Here too, most of the water used is returned, but at a lower quality and higher temperature.
- Biomass Power could use somewhere in the region of 900 million litres of water per annum, most of which would be lost. The more plants in one area the more local water would be used, leaving the local communities with a water shortage.
- Natural Gas Power is attained via fracking which can use up to 37 million litres of water per well. The use of all the chemicals in fracking causes untold damage to the surrounding ecosystem and the huge amount of water used could pose a serious problem to locals and to sensitive aquatic locations.
- Wind Power, on the other hand, whether onshore or offshore, only uses around 26 litres per MWh.
- Solar Power dry cooling utilises approximately 300 litres per MWh
Water usage in power generation is important in this era of substantial water scarcity and increasing threats to water quality, so every government needs to step up and ensure that its method of electricity generation is not impugning the availability or the quality of the local drinking water.
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