An American Lion

Statkraft Osmotic Power Plant

The reason why I can’t use Osmotic power to make all of my gadgets and doodads go is because I don’t live in a forward-thinking country. I live in America, where the only thing people think about is where they’re going to buy a bucket of yardbird to suck down after they sit on their dead ass all day thinking about how unfair it is that they don’t have any money.

Now, if I lived in Norway, all those blondes would make me very happy. All of that socialism and egalitarianism would probably make it unpleasant enough to think about going to Sweden. Then, Sweden would convince me to go BACK to Norway. Were it not for the socialism, Norway would probably be home for me right now.

Anyway, osmotic power is too cool not to write about:

Osmotic power is based on the natural phenomenon of osmosis, defined as the transport of water through a semi-permeable membrane. This is how plants can absorb moisture through their leaves – and retain it.

In an osmotic power plant, freshwater and salt water are channelled into separate chambers, separated by an artificial membrane. The salt molecules in the seawater draw the freshwater through the membrane, causing the pressure on the seawater side to increase. This pressure is equivalent to a water column of 120 metres or, in other words, quite a significant waterfall. This pressure can be used in a turbine to make electricity.

The idea of osmotic power comes from the best decade, ever:

The idea of generating power through osmosis popped up in the 1970s. Back then, however, the membranes were so poor and power prices so low that no one found it profitable to invest in such a project. Many years later, SINTEF researchers brought the idea to Statkraft’s innovation staff. A collaboration effort was started in 1997 under a very different climate for alternative energy projects.

In recent years, the osmotic power concept has been tested in small pilot facilities, including in a laboratory at SINTEF in Trondheim and at Sunndalsøra. In the spring of 2008, Statkraft built the world’s first prototype osmotic power plant at Tofte, southwest of Oslo. Statkraft has invested more than NOK 100 million towards development of osmotic power, with more to come.

After all of this research and development, Statkraft has their own osmotic power plant up and running:

Mette-Marit Crown Princess of Norway attends the opening of the Osmotic power plantNorway opened on Tuesday the world’s first osmotic power plant, which produces emissions-free electricity by mixing fresh water and sea water through a special membrane.

State-owned utility Statkraft’s prototype plant, which for now will produce a tiny 2-4 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.

The plant is driven by osmosis that naturally draws fresh water across a membrane and toward the seawater side. This creates higher pressure on the sea water side, driving a turbine and producing electricity.

“While salt might not save the world alone, we believe osmotic power will be an interesting part of the renewable energy mix of the future,” Statkraft Chief Executive Baard Mikkelsen told reporters.

Statkraft, Europe’s largest producer of renewable energy with experience in hydropower that provides nearly all of Norway’s electricity, aims to begin building commercial osmotic power plants by 2015.

Salt certainly could save the world, but we need more forward-thinking applications of technology for that to happen. I love the fact that the crown princess attended the opening of the plant. How embarrassing would it have been if the plant had exploded? Royalty watcher live for that sort of thing—not me. I think we need to conserve our crown princesses and make certain they aren’t threatened in any way.