Texas drought endangers (non-wind) power projects

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/national/article_888d1bcb-e211-5c65-8e5c-ae83ff1ae09f.html

Texas drought endangers power projects

Associated Press | Posted: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 2:36 pm

…

"We have people that need water that don't have water," said Allison Sliva, who leads the group fighting a proposed coal-fired power plant in Bay City, a rural area about 80 miles south of Houston. "We can't continue to burn coal and have industrial plants that require huge amounts of water."

…

Electric facilities that use biomass as fuel are being built. Nuclear facilities are to be expanded. New transmission lines are being constructed. And Texas is now the No. 1 producer of wind energy.

Except for wind-power units, however, most facilities require large amounts of water to generate electricity. According to a University of Texas study, the state will need more than 287 billion gallons of water a year to generate electricity in 2020, about 100 billion gallons more than in 2000. Yet the state's water plan shows a growing water shortage, worsened by the drought.

…

Most of the new power projects, and the protests, involve coal-fired facilities. At least nine are in planning stages, which would add to the 19 now operating, more than any other state. Only nuclear plants use more water than coal-fired energy production.

…

[kristopher]

1. It's not an unexpected problem. Thanks for noting it.

COST OF ELECTRIC POWER REPORT: ENORMOUS HEALTH AND WATER IMPACTS OF COAL AND NUCLEAR POWER "HIDDEN" FROM CONSUMERS

As Washington Debates "Clean Energy Standard," Report Details Little-Understood Harmful Water, Health and Other Impacts of Coal and Nuclear Power in U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///January 25, 2011///An astounding 200 billion gallons of water withdrawn from America's water supply each day … annual costs to society from premature deaths due to power plant pollution so high that they are up to four times the price of all electricity produced in the U.S. … and four metric tons of high-level radioactive wastes for every terawatt of electricity produced by nuclear reactors, even though there is no long-term storage solution in place. These are just some of the little understood and largely "hidden" water, health and other costs from U.S. coal and nuclear electricity production detailed in a new analysis released today by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., for the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) think tank. The Synapse report for CSI also outlines the considerable health impacts of the nation's current reliance on coal and nuclear power.

Pam Solo, president and founder, Civil Society Institute, said: "What we refer to as the 'Business As Usual' (BAU) approach to electricity production carries significant costs, chief among them the health impacts. As the White House and the Congress propose moving from a Renewable Energy Standard to what they are calling a "Clean Energy Standard," there should be a full and public debate about what constitutes 'clean' energy. Traditional energy developers and producers refer to the social and economic impacts of reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear power as 'externalities'. The high risk and extensive cost in terms of human health, productivity and long term economic competitiveness are essential components of defining and moving toward a sustainable and truly clean energy future. Water quality and water availability are perhaps the key lens through which to look at whether energy sources are indeed clean and should have any part in a 'Clean Energy Standard."

...Generators along the Ohio River withdraw so much water that for every gallon which spills into the Mississippi River at Cairo, IL, one cup has passed through a generator on the banks of the Ohio River, and one tablespoon has evaporated to the atmosphere …According to data collected by the United States Geographic Survey (USGS), water withdrawals from thermoelectric power sources account for 49 percent of total withdrawals in the United States in 2005. This is equivalent to more than 201 billion gallons of water per day that is used for power plant cooling alone.


For more information (including link to download study) go to:
http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/c012511release.cfm

[Kolesar]

3. one tablespoon has evaporated to the atmosphere

News you can use.

[kristopher]

4. FOIA Lawsuit Targets U.S. Dept of Energy for Withholding "Water Energy Roadmap" Ordered by Congress

FOIA Lawsuit Targets U.S. Department of Energy for Withholding "Water Energy Roadmap" Ordered by Congress
Civil Society Institute Takes Action Based on Concerns That Report Critical of Nuclear & Coal Power Water Demands is Being Suppressed or Toned Down
WASHINGTON, D.C.///June 23, 2011///

A report ordered by Congress in 2005 on the connection between U.S. energy production and demands on water supplies is the target of a Freedom of Information Action (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

The litigation was filed after DOE failed to respond to a CSI FOIA request for a so-far-unreleased second portion of a report on the relationship between the nation's water supplies and energy needs. CSI believes this portion of the report will address the water impacts of new electricity generation, including the potential impacts from additional nuclear reactors and from so-called "carbon capture and storage" (CCS) of carbon emitted from the combustion of coal.

According to CSI's complaint, the first part of the report was made public in 2006, but the second portion, titled the "National Energy-Water Roadmap" and drafted by experts at the Sandia National Laboratories, has been held up since July 2006. According to the complaint: "On information and belief, DOE has blocked the issuance of the Roadmap over the last four years because it shows energy policy has not given adequate consideration to the nation's limited water resources."...

http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/media/062311release.cfm

PDF of lawsuit: http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/doefoia.pdf

For "Benefits of Beyond Business as Usual" report, go to http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/012511_Beyond_BAU_report.pdf

From the "River Network"

U.S. Department of Energy Undermines Release of 'National Energy-Water Roadmap'

...It is not at all clear why the Energy Department has apparently iced the Road Map. Calls last week to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which played an important role in securing funding for the Road Map, received no response.

But a number of clues are contained in a March 2007 Sandia National Laboratories paper that summarized the Road Map’s contents. The paper, prepared by Hightower and three colleagues—Ron Pate, Chris Cameron, and Wayne Einfeld—makes clear that any number of executives in the coal, nuclear, oil, solar thermal, and biofuels industries, and their allies in Congress, could be unhappy about the report’s conclusions. The Sandia paper essentially asserts that the United States quickly needs to reconsider and realign much of its energy production policy and water management practices in order to avoid dire shortages of water and potential shortfalls in energy. None of the big energy production or large water use sectors will be left untouched, the paper indicates...

http://www.rivernetwork.org/blog/7/2010/09/09/us-department-energy-undermines-release-national-energy-water-roadmap

[madokie]

2. Texas needs to be utilizing their huge solar potential

Not many trees to get in the way either, especially the western part of the state.