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A Drop to Drink

A Drop to Drink. The Economic Case Against Policy Prohibition of CSP Wet Cooling. Ben Haley Energy and Environmental Economics 101 Montgomery St., 16 th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104. Agenda. C oncentrating solar power and water CEC policy on water use for cooling Analysis Results

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A Drop to Drink

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  1. A Drop to Drink The Economic Case Against Policy Prohibition of CSP Wet Cooling Ben Haley Energy and Environmental Economics 101 Montgomery St., 16th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104

  2. Agenda • Concentrating solar power and water • CEC policy on water use for cooling • Analysis • Results • Conclusions

  3. Source: N. Blair, Concentrating Solar Deployment Systems (CSDS) – A New Model for Estimating U.S. Concentrating solar Power Market Potential

  4. Source: EPRI, A Survey of Water Use and Sustainability in the United States with a Focus on Power Generation

  5. Dry Cooling~80 gallons/MWh Wet Cooling~800 gallons/MWh

  6. Source: Congressional Research Service, Water Issues of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Electricity in the U.S. Southwest

  7. Why is cooling water so important for CSP plants? • Dry cooling towers have higher capital costs and parasitic loads • Hot, dry conditions (read: desert) mean a large temperature difference between wet and dry bulb temperatures, and thus higher efficiency losses • The most severe efficiency penalties occur on hot days coincident with summer peak loads • More important for parabolic trough than power tower

  8. CEC Siting Policy in Action • Beacon X • Genesis X • Abengoa CEC will approve wet cooling with potable resources if: • No recycled water is available • There are no negative environmental effects from usage (significant groundwater overdraft, etc.) • It can be proven that dry cooling makes the project economically unsound

  9. Policy Background California Constitution (Article X, Section 2) State Water Resources Control Board Resolution 75-58: Water Quality Control Policy on the Use and Disposal of Inland Waters Used for Power Plant Cooling California Water Code 13050 and 13552.6 Warren-Alquist Act 2003 Integrated Energy Policy Report

  10. NREL Solar Advisor Model (SAM) • Solar performance model combined with a financial model • Allows for inputs of various system characteristics (field size, turbine efficiency, etc.) • Allows modeling of both wet and dry cooling

  11. SAM Simulation Results

  12. Ex. Water Cost Simulation Result-Twenty Nine Palms Airport

  13. Results

  14. Water Transfers • 155 water transactions examined (2000-2009) from Water Transfer Database. Values recorded in terms of “committed water volume.” • Not a hugely active market • Compares short term and long-term transfers on an equal basis • Uses “average committed water volume” as a proxy for “anticipated firm committed water volume”

  15. Water Transfers: Cost of Committed Water Volume (2000-2009)

  16. Sources: Pacific Institute, Waste Not Want Not Congressional Research Service, Water Issues of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Electricity in the U.S. Southwest

  17. Conclusions • All potential CSP plants demonstrate a higher value for water than do other users, according to recent market transactions. • The existence of potential water conservation is not reason enough to mandate it; hindering development of CSP projects is an uneconomic water conservation strategy. • Using potable water resources for cooling should continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. • The state’s water policies, or lack thereof, make cooling water use an added uncertainty for developers.

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