Water is FAR too cheap in Vegas, Phoenix (and their surrounding areas) and southern California. Rates should be trippled and then go up from there. Lawns are a huge waste of money, energy and especially water in these environments. Swimming pools should be kept covered at all times when not in use.
This is something I can't understand:Why can't the waste heat be used? The steam looses pressure and can't turn the turbine any longer, but still has a great deal of heat. why can't the steam be pumped into a high pressure system that has a higher boiling point that the the temperature of the steam, which would condense it back to water without loosing heat, then reintroduced into the heat exchanger where it only has to be raised slightly to go back to high pressure steam again?
This video seems to confuse a lot of issues. For example, the vast majority of water used for cooling at most power plants is not consumed. There is a significant difference, however, between the consumption of water if the plant is cooled by once-through cooling (where almost all of the water is returned) to that of plants that use open cooling towers (where a significant amount is evaporated). As pointed out by others, there are also some errors such as providing Thomas Edison with credit for the invention of the electric generator. In general, the video could do a better job of pointing the way to appropriate answers. However, overall it is interesting and somewhat informative.
Good starting point to understand implications of energy demand on water requirement.
Water is FAR too cheap in Vegas, Phoenix (and their surrounding areas) and southern California. Rates should be trippled and then go up from there. Lawns are a huge waste of money, energy and especially water in these environments. Swimming pools should be kept covered at all times when not in use.
This is something I can't understand:Why can't the waste heat be used? The steam looses pressure and can't turn the turbine any longer, but still has a great deal of heat. why can't the steam be pumped into a high pressure system that has a higher boiling point that the the temperature of the steam, which would condense it back to water without loosing heat, then reintroduced into the heat exchanger where it only has to be raised slightly to go back to high pressure steam again?
This video seems to confuse a lot of issues. For example, the vast majority of water used for cooling at most power plants is not consumed. There is a significant difference, however, between the consumption of water if the plant is cooled by once-through cooling (where almost all of the water is returned) to that of plants that use open cooling towers (where a significant amount is evaporated).
As pointed out by others, there are also some errors such as providing Thomas Edison with credit for the invention of the electric generator.
In general, the video could do a better job of pointing the way to appropriate answers. However, overall it is interesting and somewhat informative.