I learned something new about concentrating solar power in the Washington Post yesterday–CSP uses a TON of water:
CSP, just like any thermal power plant, produces waste heat as a byproduct. In most cases, cooling towers release the heat to the atmosphere through evaporation, a process that uses gobs of water. In fact, CSP uses four times as much water as a natural gas plant and twice as much as a coal or nuclear plant.
Unfortunately, the best locations for new CSP plants are in southwestern deserts like Mojave, where sunlight is plentiful but water is rare.
Some environmentalists are also concerned about the effect new plant construction will have on endangered desert species. All of this presents interesting food for thought on what kinds of trade-offs we’ll need to make to cure our fossil fuel addiction.
