Looming Water Shortages Cut in Favor of Renewable Energy

    WSJ has an interesting article about the influence that dwindling water resources is having on the trend towards developing more renewable energy sources. Water is commonly overshadowed by greenhouse gas emissions in the discussion about dirty power versus renewable power. However, consumption of water by traditional power plants is a gigantic environmental issue. In fact, as the WSJ notes, “the electric-power industry accounts for nearly half of all water withdrawals in the U.S., with agricultural irrigation coming in a distant second at about 35%.”

    Although most of this water is eventually recycled back into nearby lakes or streams, 2-3% is lost by evaporation, and the heat from the water released back into the natural environment can be detrimental to surrounding life.

    As a result of these concerns, the power industry has been looking more closely at renewable plants, such as wind farms, as alternatives to traditional power sources. This is because most renewable energy plants use a tiny fraction of the amount of water extracted by dirty plants.

    According to one study, “a megawatt hour of electricity produced by a wind turbine can save 200 to 600 gallons of water compared with the amount required by a modern gas-fired power plant to make that same amount.”

    This fact, coupled with concerns over climate change, makes it even more obvious that the electricity generation industry must move away from dirty energy and towards renewables once and for all.

    日益迫近的淡水危机有利于促进可再生能源的开发

    《华尔街日报》（ The Wall Street Journal, 简写为WSJ）上有一篇有意义的文章，这篇文章谈到目前正在减少的水资源对开发更多的可再生能源的趋势所产生的影响。在论及有污染能源与可再生能源的时候，水的问题往往被温室气体排放所掩盖掉。但是，传统电力厂所消耗的水是一个巨大的环境问题。实际上正如《华尔街日报》所说，“在美国，电力工业消耗了几乎近一半的水，农业灌溉用水排在第二位，但比电力消耗用水少很多，只占据了35%。”

    虽然大多数的水最后经过循环处理排回到附近的湖泊或者溪流中，但是仍然有2-3%的水蒸发掉了。另外，这些水（发电厂中用到的冷却循环水，译者注）中的热量被释放到自然环境中，这对周围的生物是有害处的。

    考虑到这些问题，电力工业一直在关注把可再生能源发电厂作为传统发电厂的替代，比如风力发电厂。这是因为大多数可再生能源发电厂的用水仅仅只占有污染发电厂用水的微小的一部分。

    据一项研究显示，“与一个现代的天然气火力发电厂相比，由风力涡轮机产生一兆瓦时的电力能节约200到600加仑的水。”

    很明显，这个事实，再加上对气候变暖的担心，使发电行业必须从有污染的能源永远转向可再生的能源。

    Vocabulary:

Looming：日益迫近的
Renewable：可再生的
Dwindle：(逐渐)减少
Trend：趋势
Overshadow：使黯然失色
Consumption：消耗
Traditional：传统的
Gigantic：庞大的；巨大的
Withdrawal：取回；提取
Agricultural：农业的
Irrigation：灌溉
Eventually：最终的
Recycle：循环
Evaporation：蒸发
Detrimental：有害的
Alternative：可替换的
Tiny：微小的
Fraction：部分
Extract：抽取
Megawatt：兆瓦（一百万瓦特）
Turbine：涡轮机
Gallon：加仑（液量单位，美制约等于3.8升）
Obvious：显然的
Once and for all：永远