Have you ever wondered why governments are so reluctant in reducing or abolishing electric power supply from coal and nuclear plants? One of the problem is baseload supply. We need electricity 24 hours a day and 365 days a year and not only on sunny or windy days.
There are technologies for storage of wind or solar energy such as pressurized steam, molten salt, flywheels or compressed air in underground structures. However the price for these storages is very high.
The Norwegian power company Statkraft has launched an innovative osmotic power plant which collects energy released by the difference of pressure when fresh water flows into salt water, with the help of membranes. This form of energy gathering may well work anywhere in coastal areas and estuaries. The advantage is that the natural cycle of water takes place everywhere in the world throughout the whole year and does not depend on the weather: an ideal opportunity for baseload supply using renewable energies. Experts have calculated that osmotic power plants could collect three times the amount of energy of what nowadays is exploited by solar and wind plants together.
