The Norwegian renewable power company Statkraft has built a prototype osmotic power plant on the Oslo fiord. It aims to produce enough electricity to light and heat a small town within five years by osmosis, the process that allows plants to absorb water. Currently, it may only produce enough power to heat an electric kettle, but Norway’s Statkraft says that its new, first-of-its-kind osmotic power plant could be producing as much energy as a small wind farm by 2015, and continue to grow.

In doing so, the company guides fresh water and salt water into separate chambers that are divided by an artificial membrane, and when the process of osmosis takes place –the pressure of the fresh water driving through the membrane to dilute the sea water– drives a turbine that generates electricity. Although detractors say osmotic power is likely to be prohibitively expensive, experts say tidal power is much more promising as a possible solution to the world’s energy problems. It is a bit of effort, but the process doesn’t emit any greenhouse gases, is completely renewable, and it doesn’t depend on the wind or the sun.

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via Engadget

via EM Staff, 4 December 2009 1:08pm | |