Water and alternative energy

Todd Woody writes in the New York Times on the obstacles solar energy plants in the Southwest face in securing necessary water rights.  Certain solar technologies, particularly solar thermal can require large amounts of water to produce and cool steam.  Coal, natural gas and nuclear plants require much larger amounts of water per unit of energy produced (though not all of it is consumed), but they can be located near large bodies of water, with the nuclear or fossil fuel being transported to the plant.  Utility scale solar power plants in contrast, must be located in areas that receive a lot of sunlight, have high temperatures and by definition are arid.  This makes the water sourcing problem much more acute for solar, particularly solar thermal.  The American Southwest has had a history of battles over water rights, and the alternative energy industry is only the latest entrant in a long running dispute between cities, farmers, miners and environmentalists in a fast-growing area which has historically been a desert.   The US Department of Energy produced a report for congress in 2006 on the interdependency of water and energy production including a discussion of various technologies to improve water-use efficiency in power plants.  Wind turbines do not require water.