Good enough

Algae biofuel startup Solix, for instance, can produce biofuel from algae right now, but it costs about $32.81 a gallon, said Bryan Wilson, a co-founder of the company and a professor at Colorado State University. The production cost is high because of the energy required to circulate gases and other materials inside the photo bioreactors where the algae grow. It also takes energy to dry out the biomass, and Solix uses far less water than other companies (see Cutting the Cost of Making Algae by 90%).

Get a federal research grant, put a small plant next to a Texas wind farm, use the off peak energy.  Then the focus is on becoming a compact energy conversion company, electric to stable liquid fuels. What other industries compete well with an algae reactor? Other chemical plants, just like it, they can adapt to off peak energy.  So what? Get more government research money. As Kevin Drum would say, fund the research. I add, especially the pilot production programs.