http://www.technologyreview.com/BizTech/wtr_16624,295,p1.html

This is the car project vaguely reffered to in articles about the new power tool batteries being released soon by DeWalt.

Industry moves very slowly.  But at least this technology is on the way.

http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

This analysis proposes using open algae ponds to replace current oil based liquid fuels.  An area of 15,000 square miles would be needed to power our present mode of transportation (that is without more efficient vehicles) at one third the cost of oil.

By instead using 15,000 square miles (a park equivalent in area to a circle aproximately 120 miles in diameter)of northen prairie restoration land (as I propose here)  electric plugin hybrid vehicles that use a tenth of the liquid fuel of present vehicles could be charged with wind power.

That would mean that algae/biodiesel farming, to match the reducxed liquid fuel needs, could be contained in solar cogeneration facilities mounted on roofs and over parking lots.  

These collectors would use present power plant emmissions and recycle waste water into clean water and fertilizer and provide the needed biodiesel as well as other biofuel byproducts (alcohol needed for biodiesel processing, methane) and produce heating/cooling energy as well as electricity for buildings where they are located.

As battery technology improves and liquid fuel becomes unecessary for land vehicles, biodiesel from algae will still be useful as fuel for aircraft and a precursoer for the chemical industry, totally replacing those needs now filled by oil.

This is a practical, affordable  path for the energy revolution we so sorely need.