Thursday, September 29, 2011

Save Water, Save Energy: How Reducing Water Use Can Save Electricity

By Alex Wilson
January/February 2011


While the amount of energy needed to treat and deliver clean water varies tremendously by region, roughly 4 percent of the United States’ total power generation is dedicated to pumping and treating water—the largest single electricity user in many cities and towns. In southern California, for example, drinking water is pumped either from the Colorado River and its assorted reservoirs (including the nation’s largest, Lake Mead, which is now half empty) or from northern California. On a per-capita basis, energy use for water varies from about 350 kilowatt-hours a year in the South Atlantic states to more than 750 kilowatt-hours a year in the Mountain states.
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