eli5 Why do power plants need cooling towers

Question

Why would you need cooling if you are trying to heat water up. It just seems like wasted energy to me.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

there is a thermodynamic principle at work here.

In order to extract energy into a useable form (like to inject it into the power grid), you don’t need something hot alone. What you need is a temperature *difference*. Something hot *and* something cold.