Harvesting Power When Freshwater Meets Salty

ckwu writes "As a way to generate renewable electricity, researchers have designed methods that harvest the energy released when fresh and saline water mix, such as when a river meets the sea. One such method is called pressure-retarded osmosis, where two streams of water, one saline and one fresh, meet in a cell divided by a semipermeable membrane. Osmosis drives the freshwater across the membrane to the saltier side, increasing the pressure in the saline solution. The system keeps this salty water pressurized and then releases the pressure to spin a turbine to generate electricity. Now a team at Yale University has created a prototype device that increases the power output of pressure-retarded osmosis by an order of magnitude. At a full-scale facility, the estimated cost of the electricity generated by such a system could be 20 to 30 cents per kWh, approaching the cost of other conventional renewable energy technologies."

Comments

I pay 11 cents per kWh

[Anonymous Coward]

Renewable is going nowhere until they're at parity.

No amount of greenwashing and tree hugging circlejerking will change the fundamental economics of this.

Is this a sock puppet?

[Okian Warrior]

The original post:

You should note that, despite what many believe, we don't really "subsidize" fossil fuels to any major degree

The response:

Bullshit: [with references]

Is this an example of an industry shill?

I've been turning my attention to sock puppets and industry shills lately, the first question being: how can we tell the sock puppets from the regular folk?

Here is a well-formulated partisan post which is completely contrary to conventional wisdom, and is contrary to facts supported by references and evidence. It is trivially refuted by easily-found references. I expect it was "modded up" based on clarity and construction. It certainly *seems* like an informativie position by an expert in the field.

An actual expert in the field would not expect to gain esteem by posting something so easily refuted (they would expect it to be modded down immediately). I'm left to wonder what the original posted hopes to gain.

Any ideas?