I thought I read once scheme was to run a water pipe into the desert and build your algae ponds their? No farmland, lots of sun. Not sure about it though.
Lots of hot desert, salt water and pipeline/shipping infrastructure in the Gulf states.
So, once again, the Saudis win? :)
Desert is an ecosystem too, and a fragile one. It can also be destroyed, and would definitely suffer if all that sunlight was "farmed away".