Cutting Electricity Use in Water Production: Big Opportunities

The EPA estimates that 3 to 4 percent of national annual electricity consumption (or approximately 56 billion kilowatts), or $4 billion, is used to provide drinking water and wastewater services. Albert Cho, vice president for strategy and business development at Xylem, says this can account for 30 percent of the energy used by a city. Much of that energy is wasted, he says. One solution is adding equipment that can change how air is blown into the water to provide aeration, cutting by 50 percent the amount of energy used. Lisa Cohn of EnergyEfficiencyMarkets.com interviews Cho.