Coal-fired power stations in Australia generally use evaporative cooling. As the name suggests in evaporative cooling systems the waste heat is discharged into the atmosphere through the evaporation of water. These systems require large volumes of water.
According to a report prepared by Dr Ian Rose for the Queensland Government evaporatively-cooled large coal-fired power plants use around 1.85 – 2 litres of water per kilowatt hour (L/kWh) (Rose 2006).