Venice to use algae for 50% of its electricity

comments from our community

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  Posted by Mark Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:44am PDT

  LOL - David F, did you bother reading the article? The algae is being pulled off ships and seaports. How does that effect the "bottom" feeders. Much of algae research is done with cultivated algae which is entirely renewable and reduces CO2 in the air. The spotted owl will end up like most other critters, extinct. Not because of missing trees, but human over breeding.

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  Posted by Just Jeff Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:50am PDT

  If a 40MW powerplant is big enough, is up for debate. In the UK they are building a 40MW straw fired energy plant that they say is big enough to power 90,000 homes per year. They probably haven't built one that size in the U.S. in 50 years because we don't usually build them for a city, its usually built to support whole regions.

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  Posted by Regina M Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:51am PDT

  This is soooo much more interesting to read about than where Lindsey Lohan ate at last night and what she was wearing!

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  Posted by dan_maryj Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:52am PDT

  I hope this works great or just needs a little fine tuning and will be used in the rest of the world. Kudos to Italy!! Venice is beautiful and the Italian people are amazing people.

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  Posted by Just Jeff Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:55am PDT

  I am not sure exactly how they are going to do it there, but the ones I have seen in the states use clear plastic tubing to grow the algae in, something that aquatic life would not be eating anyways. Once it is harvested from the tubes and used, the resulting CO2 is pumped back through the tubes again feeding the new growth.

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  Posted by just m Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:59am PDT

  HEY, RENEE M! Leave it to humans to JUDGE other humans.

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  Posted by bradley s Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:10am PDT

  This does seem like a good Idea but the last comment does carry cosiderable weight.Algae provides food for all types of marine life and gives them a place to hide and grow if these natural breeding grounds are destroyed the aquatic life as well as other forms of marine life will suffer real time harm that may never fully recover. And the price tag of 265 million dollars is quite pricie for a resource that will last maybe ony ten years at best if my estimates are right. perhapsanother allternative could be developed like growing and harvesting algae in a man made enviorment with out harming the natural enviorment as well.

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  Posted by shanygirl01 Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:25am PDT

  Did no one read the part about the algae being cultivated? No small creatures will be harmed in the making of this energy. The way they are describing the process is it will be a closed system. Meaning it will put the waste by-products back into the system to "cultivate" more algae. Really, people... Read the fine print before you start waving your protest signs. I know who is looking stupid here and it's not the Italians!!!

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  Posted by marc m Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:47am PDT

  there's tons of algae everywhere, REEEELAX, the whole ecosystem is not going to collapse because its missing.

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  Posted by redflipper27 Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:52am PDT

  Excellent news! creatures probably, not creaters... why don't you go feed the poor starving creatures?! i don't think they'll die, this is idiotic. italians are smart, despite what kevin d. says. without them america wouldn't even be on the map.

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  Posted by KJM Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:59am PDT

  Good Idea- oh & by the way, I can't tell if those of you who think this will screw up the food chain are being tongue-in-cheek or are actually over-simplifying this to the point of 5 year old reasoning- do a little research about how the process works- there not going to simply scrape up algae and throw it into some power-making machine! You people are the reason conservationists get a bad rap- you take a completely legitimate stance and distort it into some sort of blind fanaticism and damage the very cause you "claim" to espouse!

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  Posted by suave Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:02pm PDT

  It does raise the question of whether using that algae is going to have effects on an ecosystem but they've referred to a sort of algae that grows on the bottom of ships. I don't think there's a traveling band of gypsy fish feeding off of the bottom of ships. Then again maybe there is. At any rate is sustainable, more grows all the time and I'm sure that there will be plenty for sea creature and human alike. I love that Venice is taking a RISK and at least trying to go greener, all the US gives a rip about is their wallets- its sad

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  Posted by Eric X Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:05pm PDT

  No wonder the world is so screwed - many posters here are totally uninformed. I'll bet most naysayers on here live a lifestyle that is destroying the environment but think they're in touch with reality. The algae they're talking about is not native as they said it was brought in by ships. Also algae that is farmed for energy is free floating and that means if there is very much of it it actually kills fish by changing the water chemistry as it is only the top layer that''s living. The lower layers are sun starved and die decreasing O2 levels. There are many places in the seas around world where dead zones are caused by this very process,(like the big toilet known as the golf of Mexico) so harvesting the algae which uses the sewage that's dumped in to the water as fertilizer from the lagoon would actually help the fish and help remove much waste from the water. Double bonus !!! As for the spotted boob above. There is a HUGE difference between where those owls live and a tree farm. If you don't know the difference put away your toys and educate yourself, your just spewing trash.

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  Posted by suzy Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:19pm PDT

  That would be cool if they find a way to use that sea weed that is sufocating the oceans. that would be one way of getting rid of that seaweed,and renewing energy....

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  Posted by bob_brown_ny Sat Apr 11, 2009 12:22pm PDT

  Good technology. Geologists think most petroleum came from some sort of algae or other plankton, hundreds of millions of years ago, so this is a natural source of fuel, only without the "fossil" aspect. Yes, CO2 is still a problem, and they're taking amature tactic here. The real problem isn't if Europeans will be responsible about CO2 pollution, but whether China, India, and Pakhistan will cooperate. These countries are heavily into smokestack industry, and generate copious "greenhouse gasses".

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