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Japan has opened its first osmotic power plant – so what is it and how does it work?
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
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It's easier to understand with a picture of the process:
It's not energy negative. Osmosis doesn't require any energy input. You only need to pump water to the plant,but the harvested power from the pressurized water exceeds the required pumping power. Freshwater and saltwater are freely available. Using the concentrated brine from a desalination plant only increases the efficiency.
I mean the part in the picture is clear to me. But if we assume freshwater is freely available, why would they want to power a desalination plant with the generated power? Basically you can trade freshwater (or salinity gradient generally) for power or power for freshwater. But in a simple loop you'd only lose both over time due to inefficiency.
There would be an option run desalination on solar, and osmosis generator is a base load source. So I would imagine that energy storage made out of waste product could be a potential good investment.
Right now those are pilot programmes that discover viability of those new technologies.
Even if solar/nuclear is better it's good thing to investigate those things as in right circumstances even ski gondola can be good public transport system (La Paz)
Definitely not shitting on the tech, it's a really cool concept and definitely useful. I just wish news outlets would have asked how the cycle is beneficial. I don't doubt that it is, but I don't get it.