Salt for the Earth

Energy could be harvested from mixing of fresh and salt water 2

Through an osmotic process we don't pretend to understand, the mixing of fresh and salt water at the world's river mouths produces enough energy to feed 20 percent of the world's electricity demand, say Dutch scientists. Could we start running our gadgetry on salt power? Small projects in Norway and the Netherlands are testing out ways to harvest estuary energy, but membranes needed for the process are expensive and energy-intensive to produce, so salt-to-power technology is unlikely to be viable anytime soon. But pass the margaritas anyway.

source: Reuters

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  1. cszponder Posted 8:31 am
    19 Mar 2008

    Does this idea really have potential?Sounds like it might. Depending on what the membranes are made of, it would be a sustainable, renewable form of energy. I'd say it's worth more research dollars and hope they'll continue working on it.

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  2. richard schumacher Posted 2:17 am
    23 Mar 2008

    It's a distraction and a waste of resources.As the researchers themselves state in the original Reuters article, if every river in the world were dammed with osmotic membranes for this process the energy collected would meet about 20% of existing energy demand.  Destroying all estruaries and driving migratory fish to extinction is too high a price.

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