There was a prototype salt power plant in Norway that eventually was abandoned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statkraft_osmotic_power_prototype_in_Hurum http://

There was a prototype salt power plant in Norway that eventually was abandoned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statkraft_osmotic_power_prototype_in_Hurum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statkraft_osmotic_power_prototy... The competition in energy generation is fierce. For those wondering how this works, basically when you have two liquids with different salt concentrations separated by a semipermeable membrane, the liquid with the lowest concentration tends to get pulled into the one with the higher concentration - this builds up a pressure difference that can be used to drive a turbine. Interestingly, the same thing happens in living organisms - saltwater fish loose water to the sea so they would dehydrate if it weren't for special precautions, while freshwater fish have the opposite problem, they would end up too diluted if their body didn't have means of getting rid of the excess water.