How Are Water And Energy Linked?
March 22nd, 2012

Via Greenbang, a report on some of the linkages between water and energy:

Most forms of energy we produce also require us to use water, often lots of water.

Think of all the water needed to cool nuclear reactors, for example, or to generate steam to drive turbines in coal-fired power plants. Hydropower, obviously, couldn’t exist without water. Nor could biofuels … unless J. Craig Venter develops some really outrageous type of artificial algae.

So how much water goes into generating the energy we use? The Water Footprint Network gave these figures in its 2008 report on “Water Footprint of Bio-Energy and Other Primary Energy Carriers”:

  • Surface mining of coal: An average of 4 cubic meters (m3) of water per 1,000 gigajoules (GJ) of energy produced
  • Deep mining of coal: 12 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Coal plant operations: 90 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Total for all coal-related operations: 164 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Open-pit uranium mining: 20 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Uranium enrichment (gas centrifuge): 2 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Uranium enrichment (gaseous diffusion): 12 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Nuclear fuel processing: 50 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Total for all nuclear power-related operations: 86 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Onshore oil extraction and production: 6 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Enhanced oil recovery: 120 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Thermal steam injection for oil recovery: 140 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Traditional oil refining: 45 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Oil refining using reforming and hydrogenation: 90 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Total for all crude oil-related operations: 1,058 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Natural gas processing: 6 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Natural gas plant operations: 100 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Total for all natural gas-related operations: 109 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Electricity from hydropower: 22,300 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Electricity from solar thermal power: 265 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ
  • Electricity from wind energy: 0 m3 of water per 1,000 GJ

 


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About This Blog And Its Author
As the scarcity of water and energy continues to grow, the linkage between these two critical resources will become more defined and even more acute in the months ahead.  This blog is committed to analyzing and referencing articles, reports, and interviews that can help unlock the nascent, complex and expanding linkages between water and energy -- The Watergy Nexus -- and will endeavor to provide a central clearinghouse for insightful articles and comments for all to consider.

Educated at Yale University (Bachelor of Arts - History) and Harvard (Master in Public Policy - International Development), Monty Simus has held a lifelong interest in environmental and conservation issues, primarily as they relate to freshwater scarcity, renewable energy, and national park policy.  Working from a water-scarce base in Las Vegas with his wife and son, he is the founder of Water Politics, an organization dedicated to the identification and analysis of geopolitical water issues arising from the world’s growing and vast water deficits, and is also a co-founder of SmartMarkets, an eco-preneurial venture that applies web 2.0 technology and online social networking innovations to motivate energy & water conservation.  He previously worked for an independent power producer in Central Asia; co-authored an article appearing in the Summer 2010 issue of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal, titled: “The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right”; and authored an article appearing in the inaugural issue of Johns Hopkins University's Global Water Magazine in July 2010 titled: “H2Own: The Water Ethic and an Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits.”