Monday, November 8, 2010

Ten Things You Should Know on Water and Energy

  1. Cars with soy based bio fuels use 6000 times more water than conventional fuel
  2. One barrel of oil from the Alberta tar sands consumes 185 cubic feet of water, 4400 lbs of soil, 700-1200 cubic feet of natural gas, and produces 170 lbs of greenhouse gases
  3. An average American home draws 370 000 gallons of water and consumes another 15 000 if fueled from a coal plant
  4. Carbon capture technology (removing carbon from the atmosphere) requires energy. Even with methods consuming low amounts of water, it would still increase demands 40-50% by 2030 (80% if coal fueled)
  5. In 2005, the Energy Bill exempted natural gas drillers from following EPA guidelines including disclosing the use of chemicals under the Safe Drinking Water Act
  6. Solar Thermal Plants draw 98% less water, however, consume 85-270% more
  7. Wind power consumes less than 2 gallons of water per Megawatt-hour of production, saving the American Wind Energy Association 20 billion gallons of water in 2009
  8. The output of the Hoover Dam in 1999 was 5.5 billion kilowatt hours, in 2009 this dropped to 3.7
  9. Nuclear steam turbines that use a closed loop stream system (this essentially is recycling water consumed by cooling it and putting it back in the system) save up to 58,900 gallons of water usage.
  10. By 2050, energy usage will increase 40% according to the US Energy Information Agency
Townsend, Mark. "Infographic: 10 Things You Should Know About Water and Energy." September 22,2010.http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2010/world/infographic-10-things-you-should-know-about-water-energy/ (accessed November 7, 2010).

Post by Monty de Luna on November 8, 2010

No comments:

Post a Comment