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Osmotic energy, the promise of blue energy (France Culture)

Communiqué / Scientific culture

On January 18, 2023

blue energy

Thanks to the energy released by the difference in salinity between the fresh water of a river and the salt water of the sea it joins, it is possible to produce electricity. How can we exploit this osmotic energy? Cyril Picard is a guest on the CQFD science program on France Culture to discuss it.

At the mouth of the estuaries and the big rivers of our planet, blue as an orange, is present a gigantic source of energy which today is not leveraged at all... What is blue energy?
It is already 75 years since we identified the natural osmotic energy as a source of electrical energy. The phenomenon of osmosis is at the origin of the production of a green energy called "blue" which could in theory join the arsenal of renewable energies. After some technological proofs of concept and prototypes of osmotic power plant, academics and industrialists are stepping up. We are only at an exploratory stage but are we at the dawn of a new energy industry?
The CQFD science program on Tuesday, January 17, 2023 aims to shed light on this issue with Nicolas Heuzé, CEO and co-founder of the Rennes-based start-up Sweetch Energy, which was founded to develop and exploit blue energy on a large scale, and Cyril Picard, a professor at University of Grenoble-Alpes and researcher at LIPhy in Grenoble.

The program is available in podcast.

Date

On January 18, 2023

Submitted on February 13, 2024

Updated on February 13, 2024