On November 26, 2014, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands opened the Blue Energy test facility on the Afsluitdijk in Breezanddijk.
According to the Associated Press, Blue Energy:
“…takes advantage of the difference in salt concentration between sea water and fresh water to produce electricity.
One reason to try the system in the Netherlands is geography: the Rhine and Meuse rivers both meet the sea here. The plant is strategically located on the Afsluitdijk, the huge dike that turned part of the North Sea into a freshwater lake in the 1930s.
The multiyear project, funded by a mix of government and corporate sponsors, seeks to improve the system’s efficiency until it is a profitable electricity source.”