In some ways, this morning’s NY Times story reminds me of the clamor over ethanol a couple years back.  In the race to find the cure to our black gold addiction, some of the most highly publicized methods for producing “renewable energy” are still strongly at odds with nature.

With ethanol, it was the sticky wicket that to produce corn at such high volumes you needed petroleum-based fertilizers to artificially nourish the nutrient-starved ground.  So, you really weren’t finding a renewable resource so much as further subsidizing an already big, fat corn industry.

When it comes to solar power, in the public’s mind, “efficiency” is measured only by how limitations of your power source.  With solar power, it’s good it’ll the sun goes dark.  It’s the ultimate long-term, if not truly “renewable” power source.

Great, right? Eh…

Here is an inconvenient truth about renewable energy: It can sometimes demand a huge amount of water. Many of the proposed solutions to the nation’s energy problems, from certain types of solar farms to biofuel refineries to cleaner coal plants, could consume billions of gallons of water every year.

“When push comes to shove, water could become the real throttle on renewable energy,” said Michael E. Webber, an assistant professor at the University of Texas in Austin who studies the relationship between energy and water.

Conflicts over water could shape the future of many energy technologies. The most water-efficient renewable technologies are not necessarily the most economical, but water shortages could give them a competitive edge.

Solar demands for millions of gallons of water are currently only a real issue in drier areas of the country where a general lack of solar-hogs (a.k.a. “trees”) exist.  The high-water demand gets desert farmers and residents angry that solar is laying claim to the one scarce, key component of their livelihood.  And while it’s kind of paradoxical that talks of “renewable” energy are taking place in locations where water-transport for ANY use is insanely inefficient, the reality of the situation is that renewable energy is supposed to be the trump card to turn our weak economic hand into a 21st century winner and there are still many hurdles, other than just funding, to overcome.