Quote:
Originally Posted by rmay635703
Weston 1-4 are located within 5 miles of 10,000 dwellings
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Well, that's not "hereabouts" for me. The local utility's fossil plants are located roughly 20-200 miles from large numbers of houses. And that's straight-line distance: there are a number of mountain ranges &c between.
I think it comes down to economics. How much would it cost to build a network of distribution pipes? And you'd have to have a return system too, since you wouldn't want to just dump the water in a sewer (in most places, which are rather drier than Wisconsin). Then you have to figure the cost of pumping water through the system...
There are better ways to use the waste heat. Secondary recovery is one, of course, but there are others. Back when I worked for the power company (a couple of decades ago) they used the heat for dehydrating potatos, looked at raising tilapia fish in the cooling ponds, and a number of other uses I don't recall offhand. There was even a guy who wanted to start an alligator farm, though I don't think it ever got off the ground.