Lake Kivu gas: Explosion risk or power source

BBC News reports that more than 1,000 people died in 1986 when a lake in Cameroon released a cloud of CO2 that suffocated entire villages. A much larger lake in Rwanda - with two million people living nearby - is also at risk of eruption, but could the CO2 be used for producing power?

Due to volcanic activity, "deep at the bottom of the lake, about 1,000 feet (300m) down, Kivu's water is heavy with dissolved gas. The lake contains an estimated 256 cubic kilometres of carbon dioxide (CO2) and 65 cubic kilometres of methane... Bacteria in the lake then convert some of the CO2 into methane."

Check out this fascinating article.