About our work
WHAT IS INES – ALLIANCE FOR OSMOTIC ENERGY?
Beginning
The International and European Alliance for Osmotic Energy, formally known as the INES Project (Integrated Network of Energy From Salinity Gradient Power), was launched in 2012 with the help of DG Environment of the European Commission, where competing parties united. With the inclusion of Osmotic Energy in the amendments to the European Renewable Energy Directive (REDII), INES was renamed per 1 September 2022 into: European and International Alliance for Osmotic Energy, to better be tuned to the governing policy framework, however keeping the same logo.
Purpose
The Alliance for Osmotic Energy’s purpose is to find and
develop solutions to the common problems identified as
crucial to the development of salinity gradient power
including fouling of membranes, investigating financing
possibilities for pilots and demonstration projects,
solutions for water pre-treatment, ecological aspects,
and permitting of larger installations.
Additionally, it is intended to contribute to the further
development of the sector and to bring membrane producers,
developers, investors, and other potential funding
organisations, together with international, European,
national and regional authorities. The aim is to
facilitate upscaling by closer international and European
cooperation.
Partners and Contributors
Regarding the European authorities, this exercise is also aimed at bringing salinity gradient to the attention of the new European Innovation Agency, the relevant European Topic Centres (for example DG Research, DG Region, DG Environment), as well as to International Bodies. INES will help making this invention more known by co-operating with key international agencies. This is important for the transmission of information to key decision makers on Energy and innovation funds, including the relevant OECD directorates, the IEA, the New European Agency on Innovation, the European Topic Centre and The European Investment Bank.
Outcome
INES provides the opportunity to reach out to
transatlantic international centres developing salinity
gradient power, including the Unites States, Canadian,
Japanese and more Asian actors.
The collaborative network approach (in which IMI has
more than 10 years of experience) significantly reduces the
research costs and helps its members in finding quick and
accurate information.
OSMOTIC ENERGY
Besides the “classical” renewable energy sources like tidal
or wind energy, salinity gradient power generation is
striving to get its place and mention in the RES (Renewable
Energy Sources) plan to be explored by the member states.
The theoretical potential of MW/h is quite high and the
technique ensures a constant production, as regular and
powerful as the flow of a river to the sea.
Salinity Gradient Power generation is not a “new” principle.
The concept of extracting energy by using the difference of
salinity between two water bodies has been discovered in the
Early 70’s by Sydney Loeb [1].
“Salinity power” exploits the chemical differences between
salt and fresh water, and this project only hints at the
technology’s potential: from the mouth of the Ganges to the
Mississippi Delta, almost every large estuary could make
green electricity, day and night, rain or shine, without
damaging sensitive ecosystems or threatening fisheries.
One estimate has it that salinity power could eventually
provide as much as seven per cent of today’s global energy
needs. Experts evaluated the potential energy yield at 1MW/m3
of fresh water / second.
