[johnvschmitt]

Unfortunately, even if this works, it will likely have less and less application over time. California has very little fresh water reaching the ocean, and as population increases, and drought increases, we're sending less fresh water to the ocean.

And, over time, it takes more & more energy to make water fresh/clean in the first place, and to move fresh water around.

So, any power generation scheme that requires using fresh water is not on a good trajectory. It's good science experimentation though, & may spark other more useful ideas.