Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants Electricity’S Thirst for a Precious Resource

Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants ElEctricity’s thirst for a PrEcious ResourcE A Report of the Energy and Water in a Warming World Initiative Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants ElEctricity’s thirst for a PrEcious ResourcE Kristen Averyt Jeremy Fisher Annette Huber-Lee Aurana Lewis Jordan Macknick Nadia Madden John Rogers Stacy Tellinghuisen EW3 scientific advisory committee Peter Frumhoff George Hornberger Robert Jackson Robin Newmark Jonathan Overpeck Brad Udall Michael Webber A Report of the Energy and Water in a Warming World initiative NOvembeR 2011 ii Energy and Water in a Warming World initiative Citation: Averyt, K., J. Fisher, A. Huber-Lee, A. Lewis, J. Macknick, N. Madden, J. Rogers, and S. Tellinghuisen. 2011. Freshwater use by U.S. power plants: Electricity’s thirst for a precious resource. A report of the energy and Water in a Warming World initiative. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. November. © 2011 Union of Concerned Scientists All rights reserved The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. For more information about UCS, visit our website at www.ucsusa.org. This report is available on the UCS website (www.ucsusa.org/publications) or may be obtained from: UCS Publications 2 Brattle Square Cambridge, MA 02238-9105 Or, email [email protected] or call (617) 547-5552. coveR photos Top: iStockphoto.com /AvTG; bottom, left to right: Longview News-Journal/Kevin Green, ecologypress.com, BrightSource energy, Flickr/Andy Shapiro Title page photo: Flickr/David Joyce freshwater use by u.s. Power Plants: Electricity’s thirst for a Precious resource iii About EW3 Energy and Water in a Warming World (EW3) is a collaborative effort between the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and a team of independent experts to build and synthesize policy-relevant research on the water demands of energy production in the context of climate variability and change. The initiative includes core research collaborations intended to raise the national profile of the water demands of energy, along with policy-relevant energy development scenarios and regional perspectives. The material presented in this report is based on the research of the EW3 Baseline Assessment Team, listed below. The work discussed here is also presented in more technical detail in forthcoming scientific papers. For supporting materials (glossary, methodology appendix, and graphical appendix), go to www.ucsusa.org/electricity-water-use. EW3 BasElinE assEssmEnt Team Kristen Averyt (research lead), University of Colorado–Boulder, NOAA Western Water Assessment, Boulder, CO Jeremy Fisher, Synapse Energy Economics, Cambridge, MA Annette Huber-Lee, Tufts University, Medford, MA Aurana Lewis, Duke University, Durham, NC Jordan Macknick, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO Nadia Madden, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA John Rogers, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA Stacy Tellinghuisen, Western Resource Advocates, Boulder, CO EW3 oversight and guidance is provided by a multidisciplinary scientific advisory committee composed of senior scientists and subject matter experts: EW3 sciEntific advisory commit tee Peter Frumhoff (chair), Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA George Hornberger, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN Robert Jackson, Duke University, Durham, NC Robin Newmark, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO Jonathan Overpeck, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Brad Udall, University of Colorado–Boulder, NOAA Western Water Assessment, Boulder, CO Michael Webber, University of Texas, Austin, TX EW3 ProjEct managErs Erika Spanger-Siegfried, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA John Rogers, Union of Concerned Scientists, Cambridge, MA iv Energy and Water in a Warming World initiative Contents iii About EW3 ChAptEr 4 25 under pressure: stress on Water systems iv ContEnts 25 Stress: Water Supply and Demand 29 Stress on Ecosystems v FigurEs, TablEs, and Text BoxEs 30 Water Stress and Power Plant Reliability 31 What Climate Change Brings vi ACknoWlEdgmEnts 32 How Power Plant Water Use Might Change 1 Executive SummAry 33 The Texas Case: Are We Prepared for the Future? ChAptEr 1 ChAptEr 5 6 the Water and power standoff: An introduction 35 toward a Water-smart Energy Future 8 How Power Plants Use Water 39 ReferEnces ChAptEr 2 47 AppEndices 12 Electricity’s Water profile 13 Water Intensity EnErgy and WAtEr in a WArming World 14 Cooling Technologies across the Country BasEline Team 15 Where Does All This Water Come From? 48 EW3 Baseline Assessment Team 17 Considering Freshwater Use by Fuel 49 EW3 Scientific Advisory Committee ChAptEr 3 52 About UCs 19 gaps and Errors in information on power plant Water use 19 What’s Going on Here? 22 Other Reporting Problems 23 Why Accurate Information Matters 24 Changes Coming freshwater use by u.s. Power Plants: Electricity’s thirst for a Precious resource v Figures, Tables, and Text Boxes Figures 9 Figure 1. How Power Plants Use Water 13 Figure 2. Water Use by Fuel and Cooling Technology 14 Figure 3. Power Plant Water Withdrawals: East versus West 15 Figure 4. Freshwater Use for Electricity Generation 16 Figure 5. Sources of Water Used by Power Plants 17 Figure 6. Variations in Water-Use Intensity across the Fleet 20 Figure 7. Reported versus Calculated Power Plant Water Use: Discrepancies across the Country 21 Figure 8. Water Withdrawals by Power Plants That Reported No Water Use 26 Figure 9. Water-Supply Stress across the United States 27 Figure 10. Where Power Plants Drive Water-Supply Stress 29 Figure 11. Fish in Hot Water 32 Figure 12. A Dry Future 33 Figure 13. Power Companies, Freshwater, and Carbon tables 20 Table 1. Reported versus Calculated Power Plant Water Use, by Fuel text boxes 10 BOx 1. The Energy and Water in a Warming World Approach 18 BOx 2. Alternative Water Sources: No Perfect Solutions 26 BOx 3. Stress on the Chattahoochee 28 BOx 4. Water Stress, Availability, and Legal Rights 34 BOx 5. Climate Change: Challenging the Carbon-Water Balancing Act vi Energy and Water in a Warming World initiative Acknowledgments This report is the product of active collaboration and contributions from people with diverse expertise related to energy, water, and climate change. For technical contributions to the EW3 analysis, we thank Ge Sun, Peter Caldwell, Steve McNulty, and Erika Cohen (U.S. Forest Service–Southern Research Station); Shazia Davis and KC Hallett (National Renewable Energy Laboratory); and Emily Briley and Seth Sheldon (Civil Society Institute). For thoughtful comments on review drafts of this report, we thank Heather Cooley (Pacific Institute), Vlad Dorjets (U.S. Energy Information Administration), Kirstin Dow (University of South Carolina), Guido Franco (California Energy Commission), Mike Hightower (Sandia National Laboratories), Tom Iseman (Western Governors’ Association), Carly Jerla (U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation), Joe O’Hagan (California Energy Commission), Todd Rasmussen (University of Georgia), Benjamin Sovacool (University of Vermont), Vince Tidwell (Sandia National Laboratories), and Tom Wilbanks (Oak Ridge National Laboratory). For extraordinary compositional, editorial, and graphical support, we are deeply indebted to Jim Downing, Tyler Kemp-Benedict, and Sandra Hackman. We also appreciate the assistance and input of Angela Anderson, David Brown, Alberta Carpenter, Steve Clemmer, Nancy Cole, Ethan Davis, Scott Gossett, Garvin Heath, Shane Jordan, Doug Kenney, Simcha Levental, Dave Lochbaum, Jeffrey Logan, Jeff Lukas, Lisa Nurnberger, Megan Rising, Suzanne Shaw, Linda Stitzer, and Ellen Vancko. And we are indebted to the trailblazers who have promoted an understanding of the energy-water-climate connections—colleagues who have broken important scientific ground and helped define problems and potential solutions. We are also grateful to those working to address these challenges from national and state perspectives, and at the level of individual rivers and watersheds. The production of this report was made possible through the generous support of The Kresge Foundation, Roger and Vicki Sant, the Wallace Research Foundation, and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. NOTe: An employee of the Alliance for Sustainable energy, LLC (Alliance), the operator of the National Renewable energy Laboratory (NReL) for the U.S. Department of energy (DOe), has contributed to this report. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Alliance, NReL, the DOe, or the U.S. government. Furthermore, Alliance, NReL, the DOe, and the U.S. government make no warranty, express or implied, and assume no liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information disclosed herein. Reference herein to any product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommenda- tion, or favoring by Alliance, NReL, the DOe, or the U.S. government. freshwater use by u.s. Power Plants: Electricity’s thirst for a Precious resource 1 Executive Summary ake the average amount of water flowing over Niagara Falls in a minute. Now triple it. That’s T almost how much water power plants in the United States take in for cooling each minute, on average. In 2005, the nation’s thermoelectric power plants— which boil water to create steam, which in turn drives turbines to produce electricity—withdrew as much water as farms did, and more than four

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