CBS – AP,
November 27, 2014
Dutch researchers are seeking to add a new, largely untapped renewable energy source to the world's energy mix.
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| Breezanddijk, community on the Afsluitdijk, a large dike in the Netherlands, is the site of a power plant producing "Blue Energy" that opened on Nov. 26, 2014. WIKIMEDIA |
Dutch researchers are seeking to add a new, largely untapped renewable energy source to the world's energy mix.
They opened
a "Blue Energy" test facility on Wednesday, a pilot installation to
put into practice a new technique that harnesses power from rivers and seas.
Blue energy
takes advantage of the difference in salt concentration between sea water and
fresh water to produce electricity.
Rik Siebers
of REDstack BV, the company overseeing the project, said the goal is to improve
the technology to the point where it will be profitable to build blue energy
plants commercially in the 2020s.
Siebers
said blue energy will one day have its own niche.
"For
wind turbines you need wind, and solar panels work in the day, but water is
always flowing," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"Blue
Energy is a sustainable technology that will generate 24/7 electricity free
from carbon dioxide emissions," according to a statement from Westus, the
research institute behind the innovation.
The Dutch
plant has a theoretical maximum capacity of 50 megawatts, about enough to power
100 Dutch homes. A more limited trial of similar technology began in Norway in
2009.
The
technique uses two specialized filters with salt and fresh water on each side.
One filter lets positively charged sodium ions seep through, while the other
admits negatively charged chlorine ions, creating a natural battery.
The
production of energy comes directly from the salinity difference of the water
sources and does not require additional mechanisms such as turbines. Westus
says that no pollutants are released in the process.
Each square
meter of the filter panel can generate roughly one watt, and the filters are
then arranged in stacks of hundreds to multiply the effect.
It's no
coincidence the technique is being pioneered in the Netherlands, which has a
wealth of river-coast interchanges including the Rhine and Meuse river deltas.
The test
plant is strategically located on the Afsluitdijk, the long dike built off the
Dutch coast in the 1930s that turned part of the North Sea into an enormous
freshwater lake.
The project
is being funded by a mix of government and private sponsors, with participation
by the University of Twente.
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