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Gates Launches $1 Billion Breakthrough Energy Investment Fund

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday December 28 2016, @09:28PM   
from the long-term-thinking dept.

fubari writes:

In the good news department: Bill Gates Launches $1 Billion Breakthrough Energy Investment Fund
Why is that good?
The cool things I see are they claim 1) a high tolerance for risk, and 2) long term thinking. They're looking at a 20 year investment window, which may be enough time to fund actual advances.

Gates wote:

"We need affordable and reliable energy that doesn't emit greenhouse gas to power the future—and to get it, we need a different model for investing in good ideas and moving them from the lab to the market."

The group has spelled out five "grand challenges" which it says are the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions around the world:

• Electricity
• Buildings
• Manufacturing
• Transportation
• Food

I hope these people do some good and I will be following their work. Seems like a concrete step for moving away from fossil fuels, as discussed at some length in A Christmas Miracle for Soylent News.

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Original Submission

• Reinventing the wheel (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29 2016, @12:30AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 29 2016, @12:30AM (#446907)

  Electricity, Buildings, Manufacturing, Transportation, Food?
  Sounds like a city.

  I do hope they put in a lot of red lights, no, tunnels and no bridges.
  this way there will be a lot of profit selling "energy" to people waiting for a green light.

  Also a big expo area with airport so "important" people can jet-in from all over the
  world for "important" speeches and talks.

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