14 DAY TRIAL // A report published in this week's issue of the journal Environmental Research Letters says that switching from using coal to using natural gas in order to produce electricity can help save noteworthy amounts of water.
What's more, it can help lower some region's vulnerability to drought.
In the paper, researchers working with the University of Texas at Austin explain that, as part of this investigation into the benefits of relying on natural gas rather than on coal to meet energy demands, they looked at data concerning the water use of the state's 423 power plants.
The information that the specialists analyzed was provided by the country's Energy Information Administration and by state agencies such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Water Development Board, EurekAlert reports.
It was thus discovered that, should this American state's 423 power plants all run on coal, water consumption in the year 2011 alone would have been 32 billion gallons higher than it was.
Besides, the University of Texas at Austin researchers say that, according to evidence at hand, using natural gas to produce electricity uses less water than the practice of generating power from coal even when one takes into account the water that is lost to hydraulic fracturing.
Specifically, the researchers argue that, when compared to a plant that burns coal, a natural gas-fired power plant saves some 25-50 times more water than what is used to extract said energy source from the underground.
Thus, fracking appears to only account for under 1% of the state's overall water consumption.
The specialists argue that, thanks to its low water footprint, the natural gas industry now up and running in Texas helps reduce the state's vulnerability to drought.
“The bottom line is that hydraulic fracturing, by boosting natural gas production and moving the state from water-intensive coal technologies, makes our electric power system more drought resilient,” says study leader Bridget Scanlon.
By the looks of it, the only areas where fracking can cause water shortages are those where such activities are very intense and heavily concentrated.
Interestingly enough, high officials in Texas expect that, in the years to come, the state will up its dependence on natural gas and thus further reduce the amount of water used by its electricity generating industry.
“Statewide, we're on track to continue reducing our water intensity of electricity generation,” argues Bridget Scanlon.