Where Is Bill Gates Spending His Clean Energy Innovation $$$

Submitted by larryf13 on Tue, 08/11/2015 - 12:47pm

Climate change divestment groups have been relentless in pressuring The Gates Foundation to divest their oil & gas holdings. However, Bill Gates stands firm in his position that he will not divest. He does plan to double to $2 billion dollars in research on renewable energy. A normal reaction is to specifically question what he plans to spend this considerable additional $1billion investment on.

Gates being the techie guy that he is and an innovator in bringing ideas to market always has something up his sleeve. He is very financially involved with a Bellevue Washington Company called Terra Power as part of the solution. TerraPower is a class of nuclear reactors called the �traveling wave reactor� (TWR).  Unlike standard light water reactors such as PWRs or BWRs which operate by using enriched uranium as fuel, TWR uses depleted uranium instead, with an estimated operation period from 40 to 60 years. The byproduct of the Uranium-235 fission can be re-used for other TWR reactors. The fuel for these reactors would use existing stockpiles of depleted uranium as fuel, meaning the TWR reactor type could potentially reduce the amount of our current nuclear waste stockpile. As a side note, the company is also exploring other fission technologies as well, including thorium fuel and molten salt reactors. They are very much in the R&D mode at this point and do want to rule out any technology. TerraPower�s goal is to provide the world with a more affordable, secure and environmentally form of nuclear energy. However, just the thought of building a nuclear plant sends chills up the spine of a lot of the population. The goal of the company is to have a small scale TWR prototype built by 2020 producing electricity for the grid in the several-hundred megawatt capacity range.

Right, wrong or indifferent, Gates is still an innovator in his thinking. Surely this will take more than the $2 billion he has already invested.

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GENI is a co-founder of the Global Climate 100 Index (GC100). The GC100 includes 100 equally weighted companies that operate in three key areas, clean technology, renewable energy and future fuels. We believe this index will provide above average long term returns while being socially responsible with the constituents it includes.

Disclosure Note: GENI receives remuneration from this (GC 100) index. 

Larry Fontaine

Larry is a volunteer for GENI heading up the clean energy Global Climate 100 investment product. He is a mechanical engineer doing research & development on various alternative energy projects including generating electricity from the power of waves. A long time follower of stocks and investments, now involved in the global shift to alternative energy by investing in companies that operate in three key environmental areas: clean technology and efficiency, renewable energy, and future fuels.