Power Plant Using Salt Inaugurated by Mette-Marit

Yesterday, Norway’s Crown Princess was on hand to open the world’s first power plant to use salt to make electricity. Wearing a hardhat and work glasses, Mette-Marit was shown around the Statkraft plant, located in Tofte, outside of Oslo.

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“We are also most grateful that the Crown Princess wishes to lend her support to this milestone in our development of osmotic power,” Statkraft CEO Bard Mikkelsen, said.

The plant mixes freshwater and saltwater to generate electricity, and it promises to be eco-friendly. Statkraft, the company which owns this plant, spent 10 years researching this possibility.

Right now, the plant can only power a small kettle. But Statkraft aims to light and heat a small town by 2014.

A special membrane is used to combine fresh and salt water, and it creates what it called Osmosis power.

In theory, Osmotic plants can be built wherever fresh water runs into the sea. They also do not create any noise problems or pollution.