Billionaires create new investment fund: The Breakthrough Energy Coalition

[LouisvilleDem]

http://www.zdnet.com/article/bill-gates-zuckerberg-tech-leaders-launch-fund-for-clean-energy-breakthroughs/?tag=nl.e539&s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson are among a group of tech titans which have launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, an investment fund designed to promote zero-emission technologies.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of the fund over the weekend, just ahead of the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, where world leaders will meet to discuss global warming and today's energy issues.

The Breakthrough Energy Coalition aims to encourage investment in carbon-neutral technologies which offer widely available energy which is reliable, affordable and eco-friendly.

The organization is primarily interested in research efforts linked to "novel technologies and innovations which enable current technologies to be dramatically more efficient, scalable, or cheaper."

Bill Gates, known for supporting nuclear and downplaying the importance of wind and solar, continues to hold that view:

In a blog post, Bill Gates says that while wind and solar power have a part to play in a future without carbon footprints, given the scale of the challenge in keeping the world operational as fossil fuels become more scarce, "many different paths" need to be explored. Gates says: "Private companies will ultimately develop these energy breakthroughs, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund. Both have a role to play."

[ProgressiveEconomist]

1. Now I understand the

"Breakthrough Prize" a bit better:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/06/science/breakthrough-prize-winners-2016.html

On Nov 8th in CA, a committee funded by an overlapping set of billionaires handed out seven prizes of $3 million apiece in physics, math, life sciences, and a few other categories.

I'd snip a few paragraphs from the NYT article above, but all I get now is a paywall because I must have exceeded my free monthly quota.

Anyway, a few tens of millions is chump change for them, but your article suggests they may plan cleverly to make back that money, and much more.

Think of the thousands of prize entries they must get each year from the best minds in the world, and think of how their prize money must influence those minds away from pure science to applied science. The billionaires could be trawling for early investment ideas, by the thousands. I'd like to see the footnotes on intellectual property rights in those Breakthrough Prize application forms.

In other words the BP may not entirely be philanthropic in nature.

[bananas]

3. There are at least two other "Breakthrough" organizations.

The one you linked to seems to be a different organization than the one in the OP.

There are two other "Breakthrough" organizations I know of:

"The Breakthrough Initiative" with Stephen Hawking and others:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1151642

"The Breakthrough Institute" with nuclear shill idiots like Barry Brook:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1151716

[ProgressiveEconomist]

5. Can you access the NYT

article URL in my first post? Since "Breakthrough Energy" funders overlap so much with "Breakthrough Prize" funders, I'm suggesting there may be obvious links between THOSE two efforts. I don't know anything about your other two URLs. Who funds those efforts? He who pays the piper ...

[bananas]

6. Yes, I'm able to read it.

You raise some good points.

FYI, There's a browser setting to delete cookies when you exit the browser. You can set exceptions for DU, Amazon, and other sites for which you want to keep cookies. When your NYT cookies are deleted, NYT thinks you've never been there.

[bananas]

2. Bill Gates is bad news. nt

[GliderGuider]

4. They're all bad news as far as the planet is concerned.

Growthist technophile solutionistas, the bunch of them.