15 April, 2021
An image of the Mississippi River Delta: Osmotic energy exploits the power made available when water regions with differing salt concentrations meet (image credit: European Space Agency).
A firm developing a technology to harness “osmotic energy” has secured 5.2 million euros to develop a first full-scale prototype. Osmotic energy “represents a breakthrough in renewable energy as a non-intermittent and abundant source of clean electricity”, according to French start-up Sweetch Energy.
Naturally available from the difference in the salt concentration when river fresh water meets sea water, osmotic power provides a non-intermittent and abundant source of clean energy. Unlike wind or solar energies, and similarly to hydropower, it can deliver electricity continuously, and is easily dispatchable to meet the grid baseload power requirements. With an estimated 27,000 terawatt-hours liberated every year in deltas and estuaries around the world – equivalent to tod