Water Consumption
Most large scale thermoelectric power stations consume considerable amounts of water for cooling purposes and boiler water make up - 1 L/kWh for once through (e.g. river cooling), and 1.7 L/kWh for cooling tower cooling. Water abstraction for cooling water accounts for about 40% of European total water abstraction, although most of this water is returned to its source, albeit slightly warmer. Different cooling systems have different consumption vs. abstraction characteristics. Cooling towers withdraw a small amount of water from the environment and evaporate most of it. Once-through systems withdraw a large amount but return it to the environment immediately, at a higher temperature
Read more about this topic: Electricity Generation
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or consumption:
“We wished our two souls
might return like gulls
to the rock. In the end,
the water was too cold for us.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“I should like to suggest that at least on the face of it a stroke by stroke story of a copulation is exactly as absurd as a chew by chew account of the consumption of a chicken’s wing.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)