Will Venice Create Electricity from Algae on Cruise Ship?

The city of Venice has announced a plan to produce 50 percent of its electricity needs from an algae-based power plant instead of fossil fuels. This is the exact kind of local thinking, innovation, and planning that the G20 meeting on April Fool's Day cannot create.

The water-filled city is turning what has become a nuisance into a renewable energy resource. The city will be producing electricity from two types of algae that are brought in clinging to ships and regularly grow over the seaport; Sargassum muticum and Undaria pinnafitida. The algae will be cultivated and treated in laboratories to turn it into fuel. The fuel will then be used to power turbines in a new 40 MW power plant in the center of the city.

In order to make the new power plant truly carbon neutral, any CO2 produced by the process will be fed back to the algae.

The algae plant project will cost the city $264 million and should be operating in two years. WebVisionItaly.com will follow the story - sounds so good let's hope it's not an April fools!