Does Water Make the Grid Rusty?

You mean there’s a “grid” for water supply?

Well, not in the way that electricity is delivered throughout the nation.

So if the question is whether there is something like a grid for water the answer is “sort of” and that’s because clean water very often has to get from its source to its ultimate consumer and that requires major plumbing, sometimes pipes big enough to drive a truck through.

Electricity generated by hydropower involves similar logistics. One has to get the power generated at the hydro source to the ultimate consumer and that does indeed involve a grid. And in a national, coordinated sense the grid required to deliver hydropower generated electricity is indeed – Rusty!

The same grid that carries power generated by burning coal, oil or gas must be used to deliver water power. The problem is that while many fossil fueled plants are within cities or close to them, the hydropower is often in far away and remote locations. That doesn’t make the delivery system rusty, but the system in a national sense is inadequate and in some areas in poor shape and that condition if not rust, is certainly not acceptable.

We have reported before that due to the recent financial crisis there are literally trillions of dollars of investment money ready to upgrade the “national” grid – when the economy “settles down.” That can build a grid system capable of delivering power anywhere it is needed.

We have also reported on the development small local hydropower plants being developed that don’t require big dams or, in fact, any dams at all , but generate power from water that flows: yes, horizontally. And the flow plants have absolutely no impact on the ecology – another great blessing of hydropower generation.

As for the location of power plants, those burning fossil fuels can be located almost anywhere but the fuel or fuels have to be delivered to them. With hydropower just the opposite is the case
Hydropower must be created at the sources of flowing, tidal or falling water. That means that the Electric Grid has to be there for its product to be delivered.

This last point raises an additional question – the subject of one of our next issues:
Does grid wiring pose different problems, such as unsightly power lines, high tension power concerns? We continue to believe that all problems have solutions – and we pursue them eagerly.

From Shining Sea to Land

Facing a global threat of a shortage of clean - drinkable - water, we are looking at where we are in the United States, and where the best ways to go might be.

We reported last time that the United States consumes, on average, some 345 billion gallons of fresh water every day. At the same time the US average daily precipitation is 4.2 trillion gallons. So what’s the problem?

Well, to begin with, water supply and sanitation in the United States face water scarcity (locally), pollution, investment problems, concerns about the cost of water for the poorest and changes in climate.

Rainfall in both variability and intensity is expected, as a result of climate change, to produce more severe droughts and, ironically, more flooding which in turn could cause serious problems for the water supply and most serious consequences for pollution from combined sewer overflowing.

Actually, the US receives enough annual rain/snowfall to cover the entire continental US to a depth of 30 inches of water. This amount is called the United States Water Budget. Of the 30 inches, 21 inches return to the atmosphere by evaporation or by a process called transpiration whereby water passes through trees and grass from roots through to the air. (Example: one tree transpires 50 gallons of water per day).

The eastern half of the country receives quite a bit more rain/snow than the west. This is due in part to the annual rainfall differences between the various states. And this process presents some interesting situations:

The most severe droughts occur in parts of Texas, California, Florida and, to a lesser degree, Georgia. So can it be a coincidence or a happy gift of nature that these drought tendency areas are also on the shores of oceans? Those same oceans that cover 70% of the earth?

In any event, it is no accident that within the next 10 years many coastal areas in the three states mentioned above will be making desalination of seawater a serious portion of their water supply. And further, the technique of membrane technology will be used in steadily increasing measure for groundwater and recycled water treatment as well as use by industries to remove impurities and potentially toxic contaminants in their effluent and for the production of ultra pure water.

And the story of using inactive warships as desalination plants here and anywhere else in the world will be the subject of another blog. Also conservation – more power to the people.