Norway's Statkraft opens first osmotic power plant

[Bruce Nunnally]

The world's first power project that generates energy by mixing fresh water with sea water has opened in Norway.

The Norwegian renewable power company Statkraft has built a prototype osmotic power plant on the Oslo fiord.

It aims to produce enough electricity to light and heat a small town within five years by osmosis, the process that allows plants to absorb water.

At first it will produce a minuscule 4 kilowatts - enough to heat a large electric kettle.

But by 2015 the target is 25 megawatts - the same as a small wind farm.

With the Copenhagen climate summit just weeks away, the hunt is on for ways of producing electricity that do not put greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8377186.stm