Osmotic Power Plant Opens

Apart from solar photovoltaics and fuel cells, nearly all electricity generation depends on spinning a turbine, usually by creating a pressure differential by heating water to steam. In nature, by contrast, chemical gradients are ubiquitous in being used to do work. Now it seems that these approaches have converged with osmotic gradients being used as an alternative approach for generating electricity.

Osmosis is the phenomenon where, when separated by a semi-permeable membrane, water will flow from a low-concentration solution (e.g. freshwater) to a high-concentration solution (e.g. seawater). This increases the pressure in the high-concentration solution, which can be used to drive a turbine and generate power.