In my opinion, the production of oil from Algae shows great promise in the medium term.  Potentially, the United States, or Australia, or the Middle East could produce enough oil for the whole world.  There is still a lot of research needing to be done on this subject, but oil production from algae shows promise of becoming commercial much faster than new nuclear power stations can come on line in countries like Australia which do not yet have a nuclear power industry.

However, one of the problems that needs to be overcome is the economic extraction of oil from algae.  What I am suggesting here is something slightly different.  Feeding the exhaust gases from power stations through ponds containing algae has been done.  Much of the Carbon Dioxide of the gases is extracted from the waste gases and used by the algae to grow.  Other pollutants would also be reduced, including nutrients the algae uses.

I am proposing taking it to the next stage and not using fossil fuels at all.  The algae grown in the ponds outside can be harvested, and used as the fuel for the power station.

Consider this system.  It would only be practical in certain places.  You would want somewhere with a low rainfall and a lot of sun.  It would also need to be close enough to a city or other large power user so you can sell the electricity you produce.  This does not have to be very close and there are many places in the world that would fit; including parts of Texas, Arizona and parts of Australia.  These places  have hot desert type conditions fairly close to a major city.

One of the requirements is plenty of space.  The ponds for growing algae would need to be big and large areas would also be needed for sun drying the algae after harvesting.  This is one of the reasons you want a low rainfall area.

Now, it could be objected that you can produce electricity more simply using solar voltaic cells.  I consider this to be a legitimate objection.  What I am suggesting is an alternative way of turning sunlight into electricity.  I suspect that very large algae ponds would be a cheaper way of capturing the Sun's energy than the same area of solar cells.  In the end it would come down to economics.  Remember as well that the dried algae can be burned even at night while some form of energy storage may be necessary with solar cells.

There are many possible variations of this idea.  One is to not dry the algae, but to ferment it, collecting the Methane produced, and use that for fueling the power station.  The residue of the fermentation could be used as a soil improver. With this variation, a low rainfall area would not be necessary.

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