The use of water for power generation in the most arid country in Europethe thermoelectric water footprint in Spain

Abstract

This dissertation is a compendium of three papers completed and published during my time as PhD student. The first paper provides evidence on the lack of official statistics and the inconsistency among the sources of information related to water for nuclear power generation in Spain. The improvement of these indicators would result in a better estimation of the freshwater needs for thermal power generation and a better understanding of this matter. The second paper provides a long-term estimation of the freshwater volumes needed for the operation of Spanish nuclear power plants, the thirstiest power facilities within the Spanish thermoelectric sector, for the period 1969-2014. Finally, the last paper goes further and analyses the evolution of the cooling water needs of nuclear and conventional thermal power plants located in the Ebro River basin, the major contributor to the Spanish electricity generation. All these achievements aim to cover part of the existing gap in the Spanish literature on the water-energy nexus.