Algal fuels key to nation's energy independence

Algae can potentially replace about $38bn a year in foreign oil imports, and a fully developed sector could employ 50,000 people. They can be grown using saline or brackish water useless for other purposes. They can be grown on salt lakebeds, on desert coasts and in floating containers at sea, with minimal impact on farmland or wilderness.

Algae can be turned into plastics, textiles, pharmaceuticals, paper and industrial chemicals, replacing billions of dollars' worth of imports. They produce protein and carbohydrate, which can be turned into health foods rich in omega-3s, as well as stockfeed for cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry and fish. A major spin-off of an algal fuels industry is a $5bn seafood farming industry, as algae are better for feeding fish than grains.

In short, algal biofuels offer Australia 100 per cent fuel independence along with total food security, plus manufacturing, export and import-replacement opportunities. Furthermore, with thousands of family farm enterprises potentially involved in production, it also offers us the prospect of independence from "big oil", the transnational energy giants that influence so much of our present energy policy and economic fortunes.

Australia's greatest asset is "photon density": the fact that we get more free sunlight per square metre than most other countries. That makes our continent a world-class biofuels province of the future, with a global natural advantage in production at lower cost than our rivals. While some will argue the cost of algal biofuels remains unknown at scale, the figure of $42 a barrel claimed by one Australian-based enterprise offers cause for optimism.

Julian Cribb is a science writer and author of The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It (UCP 2010).