Electricity-generating rooftop solar cells not only save on planet-warming carbon emissions, they also save a significant amount of water, researchers report.

A given household may save an average 16,200 gallons of water per year by installing rooftop solar, the researchers found.

In some states, like California, this saving can increase to 53,000 gallons, which is equivalent to 60% of the average household water use in the US.

You won’t see the savings on your home water bill, but they’re still important.

That’s because energy use is tightly bound to water consumption.

Electrical energy production in the US consumes nearly as much water as the agricultural sector. But that figure doesn’t include the additional water used to produce fossil fuels in the first place, nor to manage coal ash waste.

“To generate electricity for the grid we need to mine and burn coal, frack and pump natural gas, and cool nuclear plants, all involving high volumes of water that is continuously lost,” says Avner Vengosh, professor of environmental quality in the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment and coauthor of a new paper in Science of the Total Environment.

“However, with the solar cell, it’s a one-time consumption of much a lower volume of water for manufacturing,” Vengosh says. “And then, once it’s installed, there’s no longer any water use coming from that for the next 25 years of expected use.”

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