Ten Things You Should Know About the Energy-Water Collision

Energy and water are woven into our daily lives and strongly linked to one another. Producing energy uses water, and providing freshwater uses energy. Both these processes face growing limits and problems. In most power plants, water cools the steam that spins the electricity-generating turbines. Because of these links between energy and water, problems for one can create problems for the other. In places where using energy requires a large share of available water, or where water resources are scarce or stressed by competing pressures (such as the needs of farmers or of local ecosystems or, increasingly in many parts of the United States, by climate change), the energy-water connection can turn into a collision—with dangerous implications for both.

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