Global freshwater thermal emissions from steam-electric power plants with once-through cooling systems

Abstract

Large quantities of heat are rejected into freshwater bodies from power plants employing once-through cooling systems, often leading to temperature increases that disturb aquatic ecosystems. The objective of this work was to produce a high resolution global picture of power-related freshwater thermal emissions and to analyse the technological, geographical and chronological patterns behind them. The Rankine cycle was systematically solved for ∼2400 generating units with once-through cooling systems, distinguishing between simple and cogenerative cycles, giving the rejected heat as a direct output. With large unit sizes, low efficiencies, and high capacity factors, nuclear power plants reject 3.7 GW heat into freshwater on average, contrasting with 480 MW rejected from coal and gas power plants. Together, nuclear and coal-fuelled power plants from the 1970s and 1980s account for almost 50% of the rejected heat worldwide, offering motivation for their phasing out in the future. Globally, 56% of the emissions are rejected into rivers, pointing to potential areas of high thermal pollution, with the rest entering lakes and reservoirs. The outcome of this work can be used to further investigate the identified thermal emission hotspots, and to calculate regionalized water temperature increase and related impacts in environmental, energy-water nexus studies and beyond.