Algae and Santa Cruz

I found Laura Chesky's As Green As It Gets (GTWeekly, August 19, 2009) a fascinating article about potential for harvesting oil from algae in Santa Cruz. .

Here's a very clear explanation of why algae harvesting isn't so easy, by Amada Leigh Haag, who's been covering algae for awhile for several publications.

This morning I spoke with Peter Koht, the city's Economic Development Coordinator.   He cautioned that the timeline in the GTWeekly article might be a little "optimistic" (probably will not start this year) since it takes time for permits and approvals.

But Koht is very excited about the project and considers Jonathan Trent, the NASA scientist, to be quite a visionary, even a "genius" with very sharp ideas.   Google has helped fund the algae project.   Officially, the city has offered to help the AlgaeOMEGA project obtain permits, but not formally endorsed the project.

Not just in Santa Cruz, but I've been hearing about algae research in Watsonville, as well as over the hill.  Will post when I hear.