When Freshwater Meets Seawater, Look Out!
by Robert Williams, Publisher
Friday, October 9, 2009
Get this. Energy is now being generated from the collision of seawater and river water. It’s called osmotic power. And the world’s very first plant to generate such power is expected to open next month at Tofte, outside of Oslo by Norway’s state-owned electricity company, Statkraft.
It’s ingenious. The power is generated by energy retrieved from the difference in the salt concentration between seawater and river water.
How’s it work?
Both components – saltwater and freshwater – are funneled into separate chambers, divided by an artificial semi-permeable membrane. The salt molecules in the seawater pull the freshwater through the membrane, increasing pressure on the seawater side.
The pressure comes in the form of a 120-meter water column or waterfall that can be utilized in a power-generating turbine. (Read the entire article from the Cleantech Group here. )
Statkraft said the world could potentially derive about 1,600 to 1,700 terrawatt hours per year from osmotic power – the equivalent of half the European Union’s total power production.
Voila! Another way to harness the Earth’s resources for much-needed clean power.
David Fessler, our energy expert, knows we’re at the tipping point. With the increasing emissions coming from the BRIC countries (not to mention our own contribution), a sensible alternative energy solution is absolutely “mission critical.”
Check out his article on global warming.
Ahead of the tape,
Robert Willaims
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In addition to once being a full-time trader of equities and equity derivatives, Robert Williams has served as the lead financial analyst for a Forbes top-50 private corporation and an analyst for the endowment of a major academic institution. He's also been profiled in such books as Trade with Passion and Purpose and Alexander Green's The Secret of Shelter Island. 
Sufficent for my homework,
thanks
recommendable!
Reply