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Saving Water with Wind
19 March 2014
Energy production used to cool Europe’s thermal electricity and nuclear power plants represents 44% of the EU’s total water use: more than any other activity. Yet wind energy, which uses no water, avoids the use of 1.2 billion m³ of water per year, representing savings of EUR 2.4 billion says the report “Saving water with wind energy” released by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) at its annual event in Barcelona.
According to EWEA: “Water equivalent to over three Olympic size swimming pools is consumed every minute of every day of the year to cool Europe’s nuclear, coal and gas plants”, pointed out Ivan Pineda of EWEA. “Increasing our use of wind energy will help preserve this precious resource far more effectively than any ban on watering the garden – while saving us money”.
Key findings of the report for Europe
• Energy production (primarily for water cooling) uses the highest amount of water in the EU (44%). The water used by thermal electricity generation and nuclear is equivalent to the average annual household water use of 82 million EU citizens or the population of Germany
• Wind energy avoided the use of 1.2 billion cubic metres (bn m³) of water in 2012 - equivalent to the average annual household water use of almost 22 million EU citizens
• The 1.2 bn m³ of water use avoided by wind energy would avoid a cost of €2.4 bn
• In 2030 wind energy will avoid between 4.3 bn m³ and 6.4 bn m³ of water according to calculations based on the EC 2050 Energy Roadmap’s projections
• In 2030, avoided costs of water use from increased wind energy deployment would amount to between €11.8 bn and €17.4 bn that year.
- Download the report from EWEA
- Read about EWEA Offshore 2015 in Copenhagen
Source: EWEA
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