Salt Power

Many of the world's major cities, including New York, San Francisco and New Orleans, grew up on estuaries, where the tidal salt water of the ocean meets the freshwater of inland rivers. Filled with fish, and connecting the land to the sea via shipping routes, estuaries have long been valuable.

Now, at least two projects – one in Oslo and one in the Netherlands – aim to test technology and find innovations to make electricity from that salt-fresh slosh. Using expensive and energy-intensive membranes, engineers hope to capitalize on the energy released when salt and fresh waters mix.

As Reuters reports, this technology is at least five to 10 years from producing even small amounts of electricity economically.

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