The Big Biofuels Blog

I have blogged in the past about the relationship between water and biofuels. There can't be conventional grain-based biofuels without water. But there was an interesting post on EurActive a little earlier today in response to the annual Davos meeting. This year it produced a  Water Initiative.
Buried deep (page 22),the Davos report it suggests that first generation biofuels take between 32 and 360 cubic meters of water to generate 1 MW/h power.
The report adds

Plans to switch from gasoline to electricity or biofuels to increase energy security are effectively a strategic decision to switch dependence from foreign oil to domestic water. Attempts to alleviate some serious problems - such as energy security and climate change - can aggravate an even more serious problem, acute water shortages.

The report points to a couple of recent examples of water shortages in the US and Europe. The tension between water and energy is already visible in the US and Europe.

• The Department of Energy report to Congress on the interdependency of energy and water stated that energy production is very much at the mercy of water availability
• Utilities in the US recognize that water quantity is becoming a significant permitting issue - Maryland County denies cooling water to proposed power plants18
• Tennessee Valley Authority shut down one of three reactors at its Browns Ferry nuclear plant to avoid heating the Tennessee River to dangerous levels. Due to a drought that reduced the river level and hottest temperatures in 50 years, the plant could not discharge the cooling tower water since it would have crossed the permissible limit.