Legalectric

Seeing so many drought posts, photos of the Mississippi River at such low levels, looking at the Elephant Butte reservoir and the Rio Grande, drought affecting bird migration through California, essentially drought throughout much of U.S., particularly east of the Mississippi:

… and as I was deleting files, cleaning up computer as I clean up hard copy boxes and boxes of old files (i.e., the Mesaba Project, glad to be putting that one away), I found a report on water needs of power plants, it’s old, but I’d guess relevant, eh?

Here’s the 2011 update:

2011 Update: Estimating Freshwater Needs to Meet Future Thermoelectric Generation Requirements

Interesting that a search doesn’t turn up anything newer!!! Another from 2011:

A Review of Operational Water Consumption and Withdrawal Factors for Electricity Generating Technologies

There is this, so July 2022, must need other search terms???

NETL Co-Develops New Model for Sustainable Freshwater Use by Power Plants

When boats are having a hard time getting around on the Mississippi River, what does this mean for all the power plants dependent on the Mississippi for their water supply? Even our lovely garbage burner here on the river, not to mention Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant!