I think the article author is completely confused and doesn’t understand what’s happening. Their are hints of what’s happening in this paragraph.
Fresh water—or treated wastewater—is placed on one side of a membrane. On the other side is seawater, made even saltier by concentrating leftover brine from a desalination process. The difference in saltiness pulls the fresh water across the membrane, increasing the pressure on the saltwater side. That pressure is then used to drive a turbine, generating electricity.
I don’t think any fresh water is being used. I think what’s actually happening is…
Very salty wastewater (from the desalinization plant) is placed on one side of a membrane. On the other side is seawater. The difference in saltiness pulls the wastewater across the membrane, increasing the pressure on the saltwater side. That pressure is then used to drive a turbine, generating electricity. The waste then is just water that’s saltier than sea water, but less salty than what came from the desalinization plant.
sbv@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
treadful@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Using it to run desalination is confusing.
thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I created fresh water using nothing but sea water, a membrane, and fresh water.
AmidFuror@fedia.io 1 day ago
This seems like a terrible use, since these plants work by mixing fresh water with seawater (or in this case the brine leftover from desalination). I guess the catch is they can use treated wastewater instead of potable water.
This method gains very little net energy compared to other renewables.
underline960@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Why do it, then?
Is this a proof of concept/MVP build, so they can iterate more efficient versions? A vanity project? A mistake?
sexy_peach@feddit.org 1 day ago
Finally, power at night, when everyone’s asleep and we always have had excess.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 day ago
Me who is up all night using up the excess power
Image
frank@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
This is a very old school and outdated mentality.
In my part of the EU this year, we had very very many days of negative sale prices and having to curtail wind parks because just solar and wind were making up more than demand during the day. Afaik we only curtailed at night one time.
Source: wrote curtailment algorithms for wind turbines
hark@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s when my electric car is plugged in and taking up quite a bit of power.
shplane@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The energy can be stored for use for later during the day