Creating opportunities to adapt to climate change through innovative ...

2. The concept2.1 Blue Energy2.1.1 Technical informationBlue energy technology generates electricity from the difference in salt concentrationsbetween fresh and salt water: the more extreme those differences are, the higher poweroutput. A study conducted by REDstack (Ref. 5.1) and master theses of some of the studentsfrom TU Delft show that the salinity conditions of Noordzeekanaal (water surface 1,5 g/lchlorine and the North Sea 30 g/l chlorine) are adequate to produce sufficient and feasibleamounts of energy.However, slight increase in salt concentration of fresh water would decrease the powergenerating potential: 1 g/l to 2 g/l, would decrease the available energy by 0,2 MJ. Theselosses may be compensated by increase in available membrane surface or by pumping morewater (both increase the costs considerably).In order to produce 1 MW of energy, 1 m³/s of fresh water and 1 m³/s of sea water arerequired. Both fresh and salt water should be pre-treated to avoid clogging of themembranes. REDstack focuses its study on developing feasible pre-treatment techniques.Both fresh and salt water must be pumped into the systems. Energy consumption of thepumps, in case of a 200 kW power plant, would take up to 10%.2.1.2 SizeREDstack has built a module capable of producing 200 kW. Its size is the same as a 40 ft seacontainer. The size of a membrane in this module is 100,000 m². The gross power output isequal to 220 kW, but the 10% of it is used for pumping. Pipes, fittings and filters are placedoutside of the frame. The approximate size of filters is about 31 m².For a power plant with the potential of producing 200 MW, about 200,000 m² of groundwould be needed (for 1,000 40 ft sea containers), assuming modules are placed next to eachother, as opposed to on top of each other.3