Water Use in Energy Production

Abstract

The United States uses far more water to produce energy and electricity than any other sector. A slight reduction in water use in the electricity sector would far outweigh other modes of saving—toilets using less water, low‐flow shower heads,—in the household sector. Most attention here will be devoted to thermoelectric and hydroelectric plants. Thermoelectric plants can be divided into fossil fuel—coal, oil, and natural gas—and nuclear. These constitute almost all the electricity producers in this country. Water use is usually defined and measured in terms of withdrawal or consumption. The former is what is taken, and the latter is that which is used up. Water withdrawal in energy production is much greater than consumption. In hydroelectric plants, far more water is used than in any other energy source. However, the amount of water consumed—that is, not available for further use—is a small fraction of the water used and is attributable to evaporation from lakes behind hydro dams. Energy consumption for thermoelectric plants is of the order of 2% of water used. Some of the water used to produce energy becomes contaminated with pollutants. This aspect of energy production is not discussed in this article; it is treated in detail in other articles in this publication.