Dutch province grants €1.2 million for osmotic power pilot scale-up

Dutch province of Friesland has made available €1.2 million for scaling up the Blue Energy project, which generates clean electricity through the osmosis process.

The Blue Energy pilot, developed by REDstack, Deltares and NIOZ, is located on the Frisian side of the Afsluitdijk, and was built in 2014 as ‘small pilot’ for the generation of clean energy by using fresh and salt water.

Fresh and salt water are separated by a membrane that generates sustainable electricity based on ion exchange.

The funds granted by the Friesland Province will be used to upgrade the existing pilot on the Afsluitdijk to a 16.5kW installation.

According to REDstack, the pilot demonstrated ‘positive results’ for the promising new technique of power generation, which was the basis for the new grant award.

The larger version of the Blue Energy installation will produce 132,000 kWh per year and will offer an annual reduction of more than 19.8 tons of CO2 emissions.

With an average electricity consumption per home, with this yield, more than 40 homes can be supplied with sustainable ‘blue electricity’ every year, according to developers.

In addition to scaling up the installation, the developers are also working on the development of a business case for a commercial 100MW power station.

With this power plant it will eventually be possible to supply about half of all homes in Friesland province with electricity, the developers expect.

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