Bill Gates on Energy

Bill Gates has left the IT technology field and focused his efforts on challenges facing the modern world. One of these issues is energy. In this talk from the ECO:nomics conference in May 2012, He speaks of five energy miracles that need to happen for future energy security without climate change: carbon capture, nuclear, solar, wind and bio-fuels. 

These energy miracles need to happen to make green energy economical. He mentions much innovation which needs to happen for this to become feasible (whether this is carbon capture, nuclear, or any of the technologies mentioned). With nuclear, he highlights his Terra power plant that burns both the fissile and fertile part of Uranium (both U-235 and U-238), drastically reducing waste. He focuses on Generation III and Generation IV plants - because nuclear safety and non-proliferation is key to any future in first world nuclear. The challenges he mentions with energy harvesting (wind and solar) are the usual ones of intermittent production (energy only produced when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining). Bill notes we don't penalize wind for the this economically right now - but ultimately we should. With wind or solar, we need to be investing in energy storage (whether it be batteries, pumped storage, flywheels, compressed air, etc). The key point here is that we are subsidizing the cost of installed wind power to a significant degree. Bill noted that although the natural gas boom is an economic blessing, any carbon gains with natural gas is easily negated if there is any leakage - the CH4 molecule (methane, or natural gas) is a much worse greenhouse gas agent than CO2.

There are various ways that we can get through these energy miracles - though Bill does not go into the depths of these issues. With carbon capture, one can use existing mine infrastructure capturing carbon from flue gasses at fossil plants, capture carbon with bio sources such as algae, increase membrane efficiency, or even capture carbon in the soil. I think carbon capture does have a future, but will not play a significant role until carbon taxes or some form of cost of carbon is factored in. Nuclear power will play a role in the future, but not in the 1st world, due to NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitudes. It is not anticipated that wind power will be economical in the future, while solar power is anticipated to become commercially feasible by 2018 (albeit it with only counting energy produced, and not taxing the fact of when it is produced). Natural gas will ultimately not bring us to the goal of stopping climate change - and we should be switching to other options. It is great for the economy - but its profits should be re-invested into green energy technologies.

Bill did not go into great detail in his talk, but did show a good comprehensive knowledge of the industry. All in all, I'm on the side of Bill, and hope his ideas come to fruition.