RANT: Eskom the Water Hog

Much ado is made about how coal-fired power stations around the world are deemed by climate change scientists to be the number one contributor to global warming and, therefore, potential climate change. 

Much ado is also made about the obvious related air pollution issues resulting from coal-fired power stations.

Much ado is also made about the fact that, give or take a hundred years or so, coal is simply not a renewable source of energy and, therefore, cannot be considered a sustainable source of energy. 

Much ado is made against coal as an energy source for all the right reasons.

Simply put: it's a dirty, unsustainable source of energy for humanity going forward.

But another huge ill befalls the environment when coal is used to power energy: water.

The Blue Gold of the 21st century is used in phenomenal, almost unfathomable quantities in order for coal to be generated into electricity. The amounts of water needed are nothing short of stunning - and not in a good way.

I have read an excellent study released by Greenpeace Africa, who have their headquarters here in Johannesburg, and entitled "Water Hungry Coal: Burning South Africa's water to produce electricity." It's a scathing and detailed exposé of just how much water is used by the South African government-owned electricity utility, Eskom.



Below is a brilliant (and scary) graphic from this PDF article showing just how much water is consumed when coal is used to make electricity (save and then click on to enlarge if needed):

It's frightening. And this in a country that is considered 'water-scarce' by the World Meteorological Organisation and other expert groups.

Ah, yes, Eskom - the bête noir of all environmentalists and green energy activists in South Africa, myself firmly included amongst them. Firmly in the pocket of the coal and nuclear lobbies in this country, it is all-powerful and do-very-little in South Africa's energy efficiency and sustainability stakes. 



A greenwasher of note, with token efforts thus far at a solar farm, a wind farm, and energy efficient geyser and bulb replacement initiatives, Eskom is said to emit more CO₂ than the countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland combined! Makes me very proud to live (and use electricity) in South Africa.

With this excellent article, Greenpeace Africa makes the final point that all of us who care about the environment make all the time, again and again: the future can only be in renewable energies. It is not in 19th-century technology like coal or (heaven forbid) nuclear. 

Never mind that electricity from coal pollutes our air and puts the climate future of this planet in peril, it can literally make us die of thirst.

Do you get my point?