The Electric Power Research Institute plans to invest approximately US$200 million in research and development over the next decade to minimise the environmental impacts of water withdrawal and consumption in the electricity sector, address issues concerning the availability and costeffectiveness of plant water-treatment options, and provide more energy-efficient and demand-responsive options for the transport, treatment, and storage of water. The Institute is also launching an industry wide research and development collaboration with the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, to evaluate the performance of new, earlystage technologies that have the potential to substantially reduce power plant water use.
