I doubt seriously it can work on the scale he’s imagining. The biomass conversion efficiency may not be as good as he thinks on a large scale, and this will also have unintended consequences. For one I can see the biomass not being plowed back into the soil for decomposition, increasing fertilizer usage.
WTF on the Stanford solar cell? Sounds like all the 100 mpg carburators urban legends. I’ve seen a lot of photovoltaic claims since graduating from engineering school in 1979, and NONE of them were able to stand up under real world conditions. Mass production either did not lower the cost enough, or the cells deteriorated badly under the UV radiation in sunlight too fast.
The fact that all of these amazing discoveries "get buried" tells me that they just don't work as advertised.