The Washington Post published an article this week discussing the impacts of the continuing Western drought on power production (link).  Hydropower capacity at Hoover Dam has dropped by almost 25 percent since 2000.  In California, where the drought is worse, hydropower has dropped 60 percent in the last four years.  Generation of electricity by hydropower in California has dropped from 23 percent of the total to about 7 percent as the drought has expanded.

Here in the Southeast, we don’t have much electrical production from hydropower, so you would think a drought would impact our power production less.  But most of our generation of electricity is either from burning of coal or nuclear energy, both of which require water for cooling.  “Nearly two out of every three gallons of freshwater withdrawals in the Southeast are sent to electric power plants to meet cooling water demands,” according to the World Resources in a report published in 2009, at the end of one of our worst droughts of the last 15 years.  Another 2009 article in WaterWorld.com, explains more about the relationship between energy and water in the Southeast.

As the population of the Southeast continues to grown, demand for water is going to increase due to public consumption as well as energy production and agricultural needs.  Energy and water will be increasingly linked in the future as rising temperatures may drive greater need for energy, especially during the summer.

Source: Commons Wikimedia
Source: Commons Wikimedia