World’s First Osmotic Power Plant Opens
Mix salt water with fresh water and there you have it: instant carbon-neutral energy. The process is called osmotic power, and a company called Statkraft has just opened the world’s first osmotic power plant in Norway.
For now the plant has a limited production capacity and will focus mainly on testing and developing the technology for commercial application. When osmotic power does go commercial, it could make a significant contribution to a sustainable, carbon neutral energy future. The company estimates that the global potential of osmotic power is equivalent to half of the European Union’s current energy production.
Osmotic Power, Desalination and Wastewater
The company’s estimate of the global potential for osmotic power may be somewhat modest. Aside from the obvious mixing of seawater with river water and other natural freshwater sources, osmotic power can also tap the latent power in other water sources, such as desalination plants and wastewater treatment plants.
Image: dsearls on flickr.com.
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November 24th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
State-owned utility Statkraft’s prototype plant, which for now will produce a tiny 2 kilowatts to 4 kilowatts of power or enough to run a coffee machine, will enable Statkraft to test and develop the technology needed to drive down production costs.
Not really a power plant per se, more of a test bed…
November 24th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
This does not sound like news to me.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Dude that makes sense to me dude.
RT
http://www.complete-privacy.se.tc
November 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Isn’t it highly likely that fresh water will become a more and more scarce resource in the coming years? It seems that sustaining human life directly through drinking water and water for agriculture would be a higher priority than providing power. Personally, I favor widespread nuclear power, with stringent safety requirements and centralized waste storage as a solution to this problem.
November 24th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Its only carbon neutral if you don’t count the carbon expended to produce the plant…
November 24th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Hei
Where in Norway is opens the first osmotic power plant
November 25th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Simon – you’re correct about fresh water, if we do wean ourselves from fossil fuels, you will see wars erupting over water resources, and you’ll see attacks on fresh water sources.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I agree with Simon on nuclear power as well as the water issue.
November 25th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I agree with Steve about agreeing with the other guys.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:15 am
LS:
Now remember Norway already runs on more than 90% hydropower, so if the parts were already made in Norway they are carbon neutral.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:51 am
It is very easy to forget that Norway is one of the largest producers of oil and natural gas in the world and earns a great deal of money by selling carbon fuels to other parts of the world. At least one 48 inch natural gas pipeline goes from Norway to Europe and there are others as well. It is true that 90 percent of the electricity of Norway is hydroelectric but this does not include all of the energy used in Norway. Norway did not even keep its electric car company TH!NK in operation. ..HG..
December 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I live in India where most people do not have access to clean drinking water.
The company should open Osmotic Power Plants in India.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
…they are using water as it’s about to dump into the ocean anyhow, so no water is being “wasted”.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
As for the India comment, this enery generation process uses clean water as an INPUT, not an output. The same company also makes pumps for desalination, which is what you are referring to.
December 26th, 2009 at 4:58 am
Good news! Power for the new modest survivalists! Next, super-insulations to make small quantities of power more practical. Upon the extermination of the Great Hulking American Neanderthal, spawn of two hundred years of force-feeding by corporatism,capitalists, at the end of the “Cheap Oil Era” a new race will appear! Slight of body and sustainability minded, they will use all new methods for a basic, closer to the earth, sustainable survival and re-build America as an environmentally friendly sustainable garden! They will use, and develop this new phenomenon to its fullest, because it is clean energy technology. Perhaps we have the technology here to power the desalinators we will soon need for survival, gardens and drinking water sourced from the sea itself.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
How do the salmon get in and out of the sea?
January 12th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Unfortunately, uranium is a fossil fuel and there really is only so much to go around. Increasing the number of nuclear reactors may help the electrical grid out in the intermediate term, but it’s a stop-gap measure, at best. It also creates a security nightmare in these post-9/11 days.
I think we need to look to microbial power sources. Algae and bacterial consumption of waste byproducts, mixed with solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, wind, and possibly osmotic components where they make sense.
Above all else, we need to decentralize the grid and have many small power generation nodes. Since the old grid is aging, now would be a good time to look into grid decentralization. However, one should never underestimate the political power of the current powers that be whom have a tremendous financial interest in keeping the power coming from just a few places. In other words, don’t expect much.