New research to turn salty oceans into a renewable energy source

[DigitalHermit]

 

Dutch researchers are to test a renewable water energy source known as “blue energy” at an experimental facility which opened on Wednesday.

The blue energy principle is based on the difference in salt concentrations between sea water and fresh water, which can then be used to produce electricity, AP reports.

Rik Siebers of REDstack BV, the company supervising the project, said the goal is to bring blue energy to a level that would make it profitable so commercial plants can be built in the 2020’s.

Siebers says the idea is promising as the principle of producing energy is self-sustainable.

"For wind turbines you need wind, and solar panels work in the day, but water is always flowing," he told AP.

A blue energy plant has a theoretical maximum capacity of 50 megawatts, enough to power around 100 homes.

 

Source:

http://rt.com/business/209483-dutch-salt-water-energy/

 

My thoughts:

I want this to work out... The ocean's potential to produce energy other than tides and wind should be explored...

[Sidiox]

Netherlands ftw!

This is really cool, we need more alternative energy sources like this!

[smjpl]

Saw a good point the comments in the article.

 

 

capacity of 50 megawatts, enough to power around 100 homes

 

So houses these days are using 500KW of power? Hmmm... Somethings not right here. lol

 

These sorts of silly mistakes don't give me hope for this technology. Maybe the tech is brilliant and just the article screwed up but I wouldn't be holding my breadth. While renewable energy is amazing, it never really works out too well in the long run. That whole solar roads thing was a joke. That was never going to work. This may be another pipe dream.

[DigitalHermit]

Saw a good point the comments in the article.

 

 

So houses these days are using 500KW of power? Hmmm... Somethings not right here. lol

 

These sorts of silly mistakes don't give me hope for this technology. Maybe the tech is brilliant and just the article screwed up but I wouldn't be holding my breadth. While renewable energy is amazing, it never really works out too well in the long run. That whole solar roads thing was a joke. That was never going to work. This may be another pipe dream.

 

They might be compensating for heating... or not... might just be the fault of the news site...

[flibberdipper]

So long as it doesn't fuck up the ocean's ecosystem and all of that good stuff, I'm down for this.

[Mooshi]

Better than "solar freaking roadways", plastic from air or a number of other projects that should be mocked, but praised by the gullible masses. If some ocean water can be used as a source of energy, good.

[LukaP]

Saw a good point the comments in the article.

 

 

So houses these days are using 500KW of power? Hmmm... Somethings not right here. lol

 

These sorts of silly mistakes don't give me hope for this technology. Maybe the tech is brilliant and just the article screwed up but I wouldn't be holding my breadth. While renewable energy is amazing, it never really works out too well in the long run. That whole solar roads thing was a joke. That was never going to work. This may be another pipe dream.

Umm. I dont know how to bring this to you but... Its kinda the only thing that works out in the long run... Plus there are countries where nonfossil based electric supply is in the majority, and they have no problem. as long as you have a few fast response conventional plants, and youre set forever with renewable sources/fission reactors

[ZetZet]

I don't get the idea. You take fresh water that we don't have as much you mix it with salt  water and you have 50% salty water so you just wasted some fresh water, or do you distill it wasting all the energy you just made?

[LukaP]

I don't get the idea. You take fresh water that we don't have as much you mix it with salt  water and you have 50% salty water so you just wasted some fresh water, or do you distill it wasting all the energy you just made?

im not a 100% sure they mix them, maybe if they just have a small barrier, then the Na and Cl ions create an electric potential with the lack of ions in normal water (maybe somehow) and then drive some sort of current

[smjpl]

They might be compensating for heating... or not... might just be the fault of the news site...

 

The most you would have is a 30KW boiler (and these are usually fossil fuel but lets go with it). Lets say you have a 5KW immersion heater, 3KW kettle, couple of 2KW portable heaters, two beast gaming rigs using 1000W psus at full max. These are some of the highest power consuming appliances. That would be roughly 44KW and that is worst case scenario. Somebody didn't do the maths.

 

 

Umm. I dont know how to bring this to you but... Its kinda the only thing that works out in the long run... Plus there are countries where nonfossil based electric supply is in the majority, and they have no problem. as long as you have a few fast response conventional plants, and youre set forever with renewable sources/fission reactors

 

Sorry. I should clarify that some technologies do work very well but they are limited. Hydro and geothermal will just keep on running but not every country is so lucky to have these resources. Wind can be decent but you need a hell of a lot of turbines to make it worth while. That creates other issues as nobody wants turbines beside their house.

 

Look at Germany. Germany is a modern country with modern power requirements that is trying to go renewable and so far they have managed to get around 30% renewable power. That is impressive. 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany#noSuchAnchor

 

I am hoping as much as anyone else that we can go totally green but I am a little more pessimistic when I hear about new technologies. Maybe it is because I worked in the consumer renewable sector and have seen the shit that people will try and sell. Blatant misrepresentation of figures to show the "amazing savings". Then again that is the consumer market. Industrial is a little different.

[DigitalHermit]

im not a 100% sure they mix them, maybe if they just have a small barrier, then the Na and Cl ions create an electric potential with the lack of ions in normal water (maybe somehow) and then drive some sort of current

 

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the waste from desalination plants and regular seawater...

[LukaP]

The most you would have is a 30KW boiler. Lets say you have a 5KW immersion heater, 3KW kettle, couple of 2KW portable heaters, two beast gaming rigs using 1000W psus at full max. That would be roughly 44KW and that is worst case scenario. Somebody didn't do the maths.

 

maybe they meant to represent those numbers in kWh, where a home can easily do a bunch in a month (kilo is a small k btw). or they were counting 50kW as the worst case scenario, and made a typo for 1 0

 

and yeah the second point (y)

[StingBull]

"Salty ocean" is a bit redundant is it not, or is there a fresh water ocean that I'm not aware of?

[LukaP]

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the waste from desalination plants and regular seawater...

possibly. im not an expert in desalting water, so i cant really think of any ways or techs they can reuse here haha

[LukaP]

"Salty ocean" is a bit redundant is it not, or is there a fresh water ocean that I'm not aware of?

it probably is there to emphasis the salty. as in, not every seawater is salty enough to do it.

 

would be interesting to se a graph how deltaSaltness affects the produced power.

[smjpl]

maybe they meant to represent those numbers in kWh, where a home can easily do a bunch in a month (kilo is a small k btw). or they were counting 50kW as the worst case scenario, and made a typo for 1 0

 

and yeah the second point (y)

 

Unlikely as generators are always represented in Watts. Maybe it was just a typo. I won't slate them over it... too much (lol), but I will wait to hear more info. It is a cool idea though. I will give them that. Just depends whether it is practical and safe. 

 

Ah yes the whole upper case lower case prefixes. I always get them wrong. :unsure: Lol

[LukaP]

Unlikely as generators are always represented in Watts. Maybe it was just a typo. I won't slate them over it... too much (lol), but I will wait to hear more info. It is a cool idea though. I will give them that. Just depends whether it is practical and safe. 

 

Ah yes the whole upper case lower case prefixes. I always get them wrong. :unsure: Lol

up to kilo they are lowercase, the higher ones are uppercase

[ManWithBeard1990]

Using different salt concentrations to create a kind of battery... I like that idea.

I assume they use a kind of ion exchange membrane that would let only positive or negative ions through, thus creating a small voltage. This is not so different from the way the human body generates electrical impulses in the nerves and muscles, by the way. It'll be interesting to see how well it scales. I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

 

Also 50 megawatts is WAY more than 100 homes. More like 5000 homes, and that's a conservative estimate.

[qwertywarrior]

lol at 100 homes

[AlexGoesHigh]

Umm. I dont know how to bring this to you but... Its kinda the only thing that works out in the long run... Plus there are countries where nonfossil based electric supply is in the majority, and they have no problem. as long as you have a few fast response conventional plants, and youre set forever with renewable sources/fission reactors

fun fact: i live on a country that lives of selling petrol and derivatives, and 80% of our electricity come from a dam built 50 years ago

[smjpl]

up to kilo they are lowercase, the higher ones are uppercase

 

Otherwise you would confuse milli (m) and mega (M), pico (p) and peta (P). Yes that would make sense.

[DigitalHermit]

fun fact: i live on a country that lives of selling petrol and derivatives, and 80% of our electricity come from a dam built 50 years ago

 

I know that feel... We'll be facing a power crisis next year according to the government... apparently the private sector didn't expand infrastructure in this aspect...

 

http://online.wsj.com/articles/philippines-power-crisis-the-battle-to-keep-the-lights-on-1410989402

[LukaP]

Otherwise you would confuse milli (m) and mega (M), pico (p) and peta (P). Yes that would make sense.

and Zetta from zepto, as well as Yotta from yocto

[smjpl]

and Zetta from zepto, as well as Yotta from yocto

 

Going all the way eh? lol. I wasn't arsed looking for more.

[LukaP]

Going all the way eh? lol. I wasn't arsed looking for more.

i find it useful to know them, since its not that rare that i meet with energies or dimensions that require those prefixes haha