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WES cleaner world
How
Much Water Do Wind Turbines Use Compared with Conventional
Power Plants? How much water do wind turbines use compared
with conventional power plants?
Water
use can be a significant issue in energy production, particularly in
areas where water is scarce, as conventional power plants use large
amounts of water for the condensing portion of the thermodynamic cycle.
For coal plants, water is also used to clean and process fuel.
According
to the California Energy Commission (cited in Paul Gipe's WIND ENERGY
COMES OF AGE, John Wiley & Sons, 1995), conventional
power
plants consume the following amounts of water (through evaporative
loss, not including water that is recaptured and treated for further
use):
WATER CONSUMPTION--CONVENTIONAL POWER PLANTS
|
Technology |
liters/kWh |
gallons/kWh |
|
Nuclear |
2.30 |
0.62
|
|
Coal |
1.90 |
0.49 |
|
Oil |
1.60 |
0.43 |
|
Combined Cycle |
0.95 |
0.25 |
Small
amounts of water are used to clean wind turbine rotor blades in arid
climates (where rainfall does not keep the blades clean). The purpose
of blade cleaning is to eliminate dust and insect buildup, which
otherwise deforms the shape of the airfoil and degrades
performance. Similarly, small amounts of water are used to
clean photovoltaics panels.Water use numbers for these two technologies
are as follows:
WATER CONSUMPTION--WIND AND SOLAR
|
Technology |
liters/kWh |
gallons/kWh |
|
Wind |
0.001 |
0.004 |
|
PV |
0.030 |
0.110 |
Wind
therefore uses less than 1/600 as much water per unit of electricity
produced as does nuclear, and approximately 1/500 as much as
coal.
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