Friday 22 November 2019

Bill Gates’ solar start up could solve industrial carbon emissions


Form article in Quartz magazine

Bill Gates is doing so much in the climate area. 

One of his passions is, as he calls it, “cow farts”. Companies he supports are working on how to reduce the methane in bovine flatulence. The livestock industry is responsible for around a quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions. I believe he also supports companies working on man-made meat. Not meat substitutes, like Beyond Meat, but actual meat-meat. Meat made in the lab and eventually the factory. That’s surely the future of meat. 

Another is his nuclear energy company TerraPower. He brought together the best minds to reinvent nuclear power.  As he points out in his Netflix bio-pic, all the 400+ Nuclear plants currently operating in the world were designed and engineered before computers. They were built in the days of slide rules. TerraPower has technology that is melt-down safe — they are incapable of melt down — and use previous nuclear waste materials as their feedstock. They were about to go commercial when … Fukushima …. They are now on hold trying to find somewhere that has the wit and wisdom to grant them a trial. 

Here in Discovery Bay we get our electricity from the nearby Daya Bay nuclear power station. We are a zero carbon household. I’ve visited Daya with a bunch of classic car buffs. We love it! Look at how pretty.…

Daya Bay Nuclear Power station, Shenzhen, China.  40 km north-east of us.