Review of energy balance in raceway ponds for microalgae cultivation: Re-thinking a traditional system is possible

► Review of energy consumption in raceway ponds (RWPs). ► Theoretical/CFD and experimental analysis of RWP in pilot plants. ► Distributed and concentrated head losses evaluated and compared to literature. ► An innovative low-energy consuming RWP design was developed. ► Results validated by experiments: scale-up from pilot to demo considered.