Renewables don't work

[BlasterBates]

...so says Bill Gates

Gates: Renewable energy can't do the job. Gov should switch green subsidies into R&D

....apart from biomass, so it looks like deforestation is the key to the great green future.

[pjclarke]

Wow. Even by the low standards of El Reg, that's a masterpiece of twisted paraphrasing. What Gates actually said is that current green technologies are inadequate and therefore alternatives need to be developed urgently and money diverted from subsidies to R&D. Here's the opening paras of the original FT piece that The Register is basing its parody on ...

Bill Gates is planning to double his personal investment in innovative green technologies to $2bn over the next five years in an attempt to “bend the curve” in combating climate change.
The billionaire philanthropist said he had already invested about $1bn in dozens of early stage companies — including battery storage, next-generation nuclear and free air carbon capture — hoping they would develop “breakthrough” technologies. [..]

The co-founder of Microsoft said it was “fantastic” that the UN, national governments, and environmental campaigners had raised*awareness of climate change*and were taking steps to counter it. However, he argued that*current technologies could only reduce global CO2 emissions*at a “beyond astronomical” economic cost. “The only way you can get to the very positive scenario is by great innovation,” he said. “Innovation really does bend the curve.”


Mr Gates urged governments to switch more resources from subsidising renewable energy into basic research. At present, government subsidies amounted to more than $100bn with only $6bn a year being invested in renewable energy R&D, he said. “Most of the people you talk to would say that we should double or triple the amount of renewables R&D.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f66ff5c-1...#axzz3eRAUPLxL

[darmstadt]

Eh? Bill Gates to invest $2bn in breakthrough renewable energy projects | Environment | The Guardian

[BlasterBates]

from the Guardian

Bill Gates to invest $2bn in breakthrough renewable energy projects | Environment | The Guardian

Gates told the Financial Times that the only way current technology could reduce global emissions is at “a beyond astronomical cost” and that innovation is the only way to reach a positive scenario.

[BrilloPad]

He is right. Which is why we need to build lots of coal fire power stations now. To keep us going while we build more nuclear power stations. Without French or Asian help.....

[VectraMan]

Wow. Even by the low standards of El Reg, that's a masterpiece of twisted paraphrasing. What Gates actually said is that current green technologies are inadequate and therefore alternatives need to be developed urgently and money diverted from subsidies to R&D. Here's the opening paras of the original FT piece that The Register is basing its parody on ...

Eh? That's exactly what The Register article says.

[pjclarke]

Blaster Bates: Renewables Don't Work.
Register Headline : Renewables can't do the job.
Actual FT Headline : Gates to double investment in renewable energy projects


Spot the difference?

[VectraMan]

Blaster Bates: Renewables Don't Work.
Register Headline : Renewables can't do the job.
Actual FT Headline : Gates to double investment in renewable energy projects

Spot the difference?

If you're only going to read the headlines then yes.

[pjclarke]

from the Guardian

Bill Gates to invest $2bn in breakthrough renewable energy projects | Environment | The Guardian

Nobody told Denmark.

Wind provides more than half of Denmark's power for first time | Windpower Monthly

[pjclarke]

If you're only going to read the headlines then yes.

More than half never read beyond the headline. They're a valuable propaganda tool.

Gates is right, but he is talking more in the sense that the sheer scale of the problem demands better solutions - including renewables - than the ones we have invested in now, which is different from the 'renewables won't cut it' spin of the Reg coverage. If you've seen his TED presentation he talks about the need to reduce carbon emissions to zero, the Kaya Identity and the need to decarbonise:

Gates argued that we will never be able to achieve perfect energy efficiency, so improvement in this area will never eliminate the problem of global warming.* Instead, the solution must come from developing new carbon-neutral energy sources.* “We need solutions, either one or several, that have unbelievable scale and unbelievable reliability. I really only see five [technologies] that can achieve the big numbers”: carbon capture and storage (CCS),*nuclear, wind, solar photovoltaic, and solar thermal.*

“They all have significant challenges. We are going to have to work on each of these five, and we can’t give up any of them because they look daunting.” He said that we need hundreds of companies working on research and development to solve the problems associated with each, and that current investment in such research is lagging.

**

A solution that works needs a response far greater than the market has so far delivered, delayed in part by the efforts of people who argue we don't even have a problem ...


Bill Gates: Innovating to zero! | TED Talk | TED.com