Two Australian companies are joining forces to use the carbon dioxide from burning coal to grow algae… and then turn that algae into biodiesel.
This article on C|Net.com has more details about this truly green idea:
Linc Energy and Bio Clean Coal announced the creation of the company last week and said they would spend $1 million over the next year to build a prototype bioreactor.
The bioreactor will be designed to grow algae, using the carbon dioxide produced from processing coal for electricity as “food.” That process should dramatically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal, the company said.
The dried algae could be burned for power generation, turned into biodiesel or fertilizer.
A similar project in Arizona had to suspend operations earlier this year when it produced more algae than it could make into biodiesel.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus is hosting an energy, economic and environmental – or E3 – conference this week. 
Scientists at Stanford University are looking at a way to connect North America’s wind farms, making wind power less intermittent than its source.
Besides providing a steady production of electricity, connecting wind farms would present other cost benefits by “reducing the total distance that all the power has to travel from the multiple points of origin to the destination point” and by combining all the power on a single transmission line.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) has unveiled a five-year, $50 billion energy plan akin to the Apollo project that put men on the moon during a campaign stop in Iowa.
General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy have invited the media to ride in the vehicles participating in the Challenge X Competition… a multi-year engineering competition that has 17 university teams from across North America in a real-world engineering experience to develop GM vehicles in the company’s global vehicle development process. The idea is the teams will create advanced propulsion technology systems that increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact through hybrid, plug-in, or fuel cell systems, powered by alternative fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol and hydrogen.
A state program administered by the Iowa Department of Economic Development has handed out $563,800 to 21 Iowa retailers installing pumps for E-85 and biodiesel fuel, terminals installing biodiesel storage tanks and blending equipment, and tank wagons for farm delivery having dedicated compartments for E-85 and biodiesel.
There´s no denying the capability for the use of ethanol is a few steps ahead of the infrastructure for accessing the alternative fuel. But, that doesn´t mean consumers can´t fill up their flex-fuel vehicles with E85 without ease. Simply log on to 
And while the amount of turkey grease that Rocky Mountain Sustainable Enterprises collects this Saturday isn’t likely to cut our dependency on Middle Eastern oil, the company is still hopeful its post-Thanksgiving drive will be beneficial.
As we