Solar and Evaporative Cooling Considerations (Score 1)

I live in Vegas and would at least like to comment on a couple of items:

Power in Vegas by Nevada Power (published data) is approximately 23% coal, 67 % Natural Gas, 4% Hydroelectric, 3.8% Geothermal, 0.85% Nuclear, and 0.5 % solar per their generation stats. Nevada Power generate 68% of their power and they buy the rest. Solar is available and it does make sense, but the republican politicians and killing the projects. Nevada Solar One (http://www.acciona-na.com/About-Us/Our-Projects/U-S-/Nevada-Solar-One) works 24/7 and produces 64 MW annually not far from Boulder City and since it uses concentrating solar and salt for thermal production of electricity. Similar solar facilities were planned north of Vegas along with the necessary transmission lines which would also connect the two major U.S. electric grads. Current plans are still on hold (via politics again). While solar energy could be a major source of revenue (along with current mining and tourism industries) for Nevada, solar and transmission lines are currently viewed as a boondoggle. An area of solar approximately 100 miles on a side devoted to solar could power ALL of the U.S. electricity needs using current technology.

I have water concerns about the facility, when using evaporative cooling the DC is using a lot of water lost to evaporation. I suspect 1-2 million gallons per day as an educated "guess". For comparison, a typical golf course minimally uses a million gallons of water per day. While I worked in Arizona (land development) designing master planned communities as an engineer, the water used for golf courses would be reclaimed and/or non potable water. In Nevada, we try to return (after processing) water to the Colorado River to account for a draw that exceeds our allotment. While someone can argue whether living in Las Vegas does not make sense environmentally, my current house (nothing special) uses less electricity, water, and natural gas than anywhere I have previously lived (MI, WA, WV, & AZ).

If you stand on Hover Dam or the Bypass Bridge, you will see plenty of water. Right now Lake Mead water level is rising and regardless of rise or fall a certain minimum flow is regulated to pass downstream of the dam. Most of the water is used for agricultural purposes, none reaches the Gulf of Mexico except in unusual circumstances. Not all of water (there is a lot) is used wisely--for example cotton is not a water wise crop to grow in the California desert. Better decisions could be made with the water.

As for the Data Center in Vegas, I was very supportive until I read about the evaporative cooling. Now I'm suspicious that it not water wise thinking. At my current household consumption rate of 70k gallons per year, and assuming the Data Center is using over a million gallons per day for evaporative cooling (when used), it's the equivalent household water use of 14 years in one day. But wait--at least 50% of my household water goes back into the Colorado River verses evaporation. So, each day of their evaporative cooling is equivalent to 28 years of household water use. Converting to household to an estimate of 200 gallons per day, their million gallon per day use is equivalent to the use of 5,000 households or 10,000 households assuming half their water flows back (though the sewer system) to the Colorado.

Several poor decisions in industry can add up quickly in the desert.