Bill Gates and the Quest for Sustainable Energy

"We need an energy miracle," says Bill Gates in this interview with Atlantic editor in chief James Bennet. "That may make it seem too daunting to people, but miracles in science are happening all the time." So, what are the solutions to climate change? Gates has pledged to invest $2 billion in new alternative energy technologies. In this discussion with Bennet, he extolls the necessity of investment in vast and varied technologies to change such a massive infrastructure quickly. Read more about Gates's commitment to moving the world beyond fossil fuels in the November 2015 issue of The Atlantic.

[Anand-qbwp]

I hate background music. Let the voices be heard!!

[europaeuropa]

Solar panels have at best 20% efficiency. However, when combining efficiencies for the battery chargers, batteries, and inverter the overall system efficiency is 15% at best. System efficiency drops about 1/2% to 1% per year, meaning that the overall maximum system efficiency is 10% or less after 10 years. That is horrible return on investment. After 20 years, the efficiency decreases to a few %.

[timjenkinson]

Geothermal energy is great option for some countries

[chaptertravels]

Why does he keep dancing around the solution, the one he's developing in China. The same one dozens of other companies are developing all over the world. Nuclear, it's the only possible energy source that meets the requirements he set at the beginning of the interview.

[austfirst]

Sustainable Cheap Energy is unachievable in Australia until we get rid of the Fools in Canberra whom wont move forward.

[PepinsSpot]

No one ever talks about solar thermal generators. They even generate electricity at night.

[nolanmoser]

Is there a way to use carbon molecules for energy that would break them into non harmful emissions safe for the environment?

[yirannie]

Hydrogen, byproduct of Natural gases or electrolysis from water, could be one choice. No CO2 emissions.

[zahariburgess]

places with wind will use wind places that can sustain hydro/geothermal will use that but nuclear is the best expessially if he finds out how to use natural or depleted uranium in one then he will become the first trillionare

[lanceg]

I hate when people compare now to previous times. Today. The world is Flippin. Different.
Probably about half of the world can communicate with one another and know everything about the world in one instant.
It is so different. We should be able to make change way quicker no problem.

[nickkingston]

The answer was corona virus, clear skies, and nature looking radiant

[mandarkokate]

Nothing going to totally replace fossil fuels. Some can only reduce the dependence on fossil. Sustainable energy is hard to achieve. Because our economy is so complex that we need instant and reliable energy. Meanwhile today renewables contribute about only 4 % of world's primary energy consumption. Reduce your material and energy consumption that's the only way forward.

[pauladams]

When we inevitably go fully sustainable and use geothermal, biomass, wave energy, tidal energy, solar and wind, cheap stable power will be the norm by ...

1: Using many renewable sources as listed above as even on a windless night the others are unaffected.
2: Using suitable energy storage like pumped water, liquid air, batteries and biomass etc.
3: Trading energy over large distances, across continents then eventually the globe. This would even out supply and demand. This is one application that capitalistic free market economics would be most helpful by quickly managing demand and supply.

[ericskates]

Looked in comments and now can't not hear music

[PaddyMcQueen]

Don t mix energy and temperature changing. No one can statistically prove that human impact on weather temperature is 100% related. Too much variables, even multivariate statistics struggles when modeling this question.

[zehrajafri]

If only more people and countries would slow down their polluting activities and seriously pay attention and funds to heal the ecosystem and find less polluting systems of energy. The more people take Climate Crisis seriously the more people like Bill Gates can succeed in their efforts to save humanity and the ecosystem for our children.

[guysview]

What we need is to bring world human population down to 2 Billion people (OR LESS) and then we have solved ALL of the problems. No one will say that.

[clavandsouza]

2:57, le wild 3D music starts.
*Removes headphones/pauses video 4 times to check*
For real?

[alexanderblair]

Five things are all that is required, tidal turbines along the coast, liquid salt solar arrays in New Mexico and Arizona, additional pebble nuclear plants where fresh water is available and extending our electrical infrastructure to reach the new power generation stations.

[tonyquickpasta]

Great video apart from the nursery rhyme music