Posted on 02/24/2015 8:04:29 PM PST by ckilmer
The government is spending far too little money on energy research, putting at risk the long-term goals of reducing carbon emissions and alleviating energy poverty, some of the country’s top business leaders found in a new report.
The American Energy Innovation Council, a group of six executives that includes the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the General Electric chief Jeffrey R. Immelt, urged Congress and the White House to make expanded energy research a strategic national priority.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The key to a successful 21st century is two things:
1.)electricity at least 1/2-1/4 the cost of cheapest coal/natural gas generated electricity. Preferably 1/10 the cost of cheapest coal/natural gas generated electricity.
2.) desalinized water cheap enough for agriculture... desalinized water cheap enough to pipe inland 1000 miles for agriculture.
The federal governments best efforts via the dept of energy righ now are to help the Chinese gain the goal of cheap energy via msr reactors while working with a canadian company to do the same thing.
It would be best if the US government spent the bucks on US fourth generation nuclear reactors.
Bill Gates is arguably the shrewdest strategic business planner in the world. He helped found the modern commercial software via microsoft. Today he is hip deep in 4th generation nuclear reactors.
He thinks the USA should be spending about 16 billion annually on energy research. this is chump change in the grand scheme of things but the payoff for success is a successful 21st century and a springboard to the space faring world of the 22nd century.
The way to the deserts of mars is through the deserts of the earth. You get there via cheap energy and water.
The federal government is investing much insufficient cash on energy research, endangering the long-lasting objectives of lowering carbon discharges and minimizing energy destitution, a few of the nation’s leading magnate discovered in a brand-new record.
The American Energy Advancement Council, a team of 6 execs that consists of the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and the General Electric principal Jeffrey R. Immelt, advised Congress and the White Residence to make broadened energy research a critical nationwide concern.
The leaders explained that the Usa had actually fallen back a multitude of other nations in the portion of financial outcome being invested in energy research, amongst them China, Japan, France and South Korea. Their record advised leaders of both political celebrations to begin boosting funds to eventually three-way today’s degree of research investing, regarding $ 5 billion a year.
“Expanding and constant appropriations for energy advancement must be a leading U.S. concern over the following years,” business leaders suggested in their record. “The budget plan numbers over the last 5 years are a significant failing in U.S. energy plan.”
At risk, Mr. Gates stated in a meeting, are not simply long-lasting objectives like minimizing discharges of greenhouse gases, however likewise American management in markets of the future, consisting of sophisticated atomic power plants and coal-burning nuclear power plant that can catch and hide their discharges.
“Our colleges, our nationwide laboratories are the very best worldwide,” Mr. Gates stated, however he included that a persistent financing deficiency was keeping back the speed of their job.
The record did credit rating the Obama management and Congress with some gains, consisting of a one-time treatment of funds in the financial stimulation bill of 2009. However succeeding budget plans have actually basically hung back to previous degrees, and investing on American energy research stays much listed below the peak it got to after the energy situations of the 1970s.
| Succeeding budget plans have actually basically lost back to previous degrees, and investing on American energy research stays much listed below the high factor it got to simply after the energy situations of the 1970s.
In the previous, the record discovered, financial investments in energy advancement have actually paid significant returns. Mr. Gates mentioned the instance of hydraulic fracturing to unlock gas and oil in shale down payments, a method established partially with government research cash that has actually caused a newly found wealth of oil and gas, reducing costs for customers.
Comparable advancement is required in low-emission sources of energy, the record discovered, if the objective of restricting worldwide warming is to be fulfilled while making energy much more offered to bad individuals worldwide. Professionals associated with composing the record stated the required advancements consisted of more secure kinds of atomic power plants, more affordable techniques of catching co2 discharges at nuclear power plant and enhanced electric batteries that could keep big quantities of energy.
The brand-new record is an upgrade on comparable suggestions the exact same magnate made 5 years back. While the record discovered that the photo stayed typically grim, it did mention some development.
For example, Congress developed the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, designed on the Pentagon research company that assisted produce the Web.|Congress developed the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, designed on the Pentagon research company that assisted produce the Web. And the Energy Division has actually moneyed a strand of energy advancement centers throughout the nation.
“There’s some really appealing belongings that are in these facilities, however the speed is definitely restricted by the reasonable financing degree,” Mr. Gates stated. “Those must be moneyed at a considerably greater degree.”
The record explained that financing for ARPA-E was much less compared to $ 300 million each year, and advised that it be increased better to $ 1 billion. The whole government appropriation for energy research is much less compared to Americans invest each year getting potato and tortilla chips, the record kept in mind.
The suggestions in the record resemble those made by other teams recently. However with the government budget plan under stress, the concept of a significant press on energy research has actually gotten little grip in Washington.
| With the government budget plan under stress, the concept of a significant press on energy research has actually acquired little grip in Washington.
Business leaders wish to alter that as the 2016 governmental race obtains under method, advising both celebrations to accept enthusiastic research strategies.
Apart from Mr. Gates and Mr. Immelt, the American Energy Development Council makes up Norman R. Augustine, a previous chairman and president of Lockheed Martin; John Doerr, the Silicon Valley investor; Chad Holliday, a previous chairman and president of DuPont that quickly will certainly end up being chairman of Covering; and Tom Linebarger, chairman and president of Cummins.
In pressing their situation in Washington, the leaders are most likely to come across unwillingness on the right to increase federal government investing, along with some thoughtful objections to broadening the federal government’s duty in the energy market. Left wing, they might come across wariness from ecologists that, while not resisting brand-new research, do not look for that press to interfere with quick implementation of present clean-energy innovations, like wind and solar energy.
“I am One Hundred Percent for even more research, considering that that could potentially resist that?” stated Joseph J. Romm, that assisted handle government energy research in the Bill Clinton management and later on established a commonly checked out blog site on environment modification. “However it is just a little component of the response, and definitely not one of the most essential.”
He included that hostile implementation of alreadying existing innovations and a cost on discharges of co2 would certainly go a lengthy method to decrease discharges, which the last would certainly assist open even more personal development.
NYT > Business Day| The leaders aimed out that the United States had actually dropped behind a multitude of other nations in the portion of financial outcome being invested on energy research, amongst them China, Japan, France and South Korea.”Expanding and constant appropriations for energy advancement ought to be a leading U.S. concern over the following years,” the business leaders suggested in their record. Comparable development is required in low-emission sources of energy, the record discovered, if the objective of restricting worldwide warming is to be satisfied while making energy much more offered to bad individuals around the globe.
The leaders aimed out that the United States had actually dropped behind a multitude of other nations in the portion of financial outcome being invested on energy research, amongst them China, Japan, France and South Korea.”Expanding and constant appropriations for energy development must be a leading U.S. concern over the following years,” the business leaders suggested in their record. In the previous, the record discovered, financial investments in energy development have actually paid significant returns. Comparable advancement is required in low-emission sources of energy, the record discovered, if the objective of restricting worldwide warming is to be fulfilled while making energy much more offered to bad individuals around the globe. In pressing their situation in Washington, the leaders are most likely to experience unwillingness on the right to increase federal government investing, as well as some thoughtful objections to broadening the federal government’s function in the energy market.
Let the rich countries invest in speculative research. In 20 years their patents will run out and we’ll get it for free.
In case you don’t get the point that is exactly what Gates and friends are saying.
Let them offer prizes for results, that would be a better use of their and everyone’s time and money.
Why doesnt Bill and his buddies pony up thd money themselves. Between him and Buffet they can probably do 100 billion and still remain billionaires.
Let the rich countries invest in speculative research. In 20 years their patents will run out and we’ll get it for free.
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Bill Gates is talking about spending 16 billion worthless dollars of a worthless country. this is dirt cheap. we don’t need no stinkin rich countries to kill the cost of power.
Hell the fed can print out 16 billion dollars for nothing to do nothing.
It would be easy enough for the fed to print 16 billion dollars from nothing to do something. something big. something really big. something the like of which will make the USA a rich country again.
want a cookie?
Why doesnt Bill and his buddies pony up thd money themselves. Between him and Buffet they can probably do 100 billion and still remain billionaires.
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If the feds provided more support for nuclear research —there would be a lot more private money that would come off the sidelines. That’s the way it has worked for all other power sources.
100 billion would give us all that is needed to make free energy a reality for the world. The research is done. Tesla knew how and he was killed for knowing it. The means to do it have been suppressed by the Bill Gates etc of the world. Let them pony up!
Well, mostly the problem is that the solution for electric generation was found and not wanted..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_fast_reactor
What’s “ worked for all other power sources” is the government stays out of the way until there’s an early imperfect product and then the military (usually) buys it.
-Steam, electric.
Funding favorites to do things, like we do now, has a long history too. Some say it’s the oldest profession...
The more money the government takes from people to spend, the less money there is for people to invest. Sure there’s some reasonable amount and nukes are a good place for it to be spent. It’s also a good place for people to invest instead.
Do not wander down the rabbit hole of conspiracy and pseudoscience.
Telsa’s early years of invention he rivaled any that would compete (Edison comes to mind) but later he went sadly quite mad.
There is a good reason that many of “mad scientist” characters in fiction bear a not to far removed likness of N.Tesla.
Telsa’s early years of invention he rivaled any that would compete (Edison comes to mind) but later he went sadly quite mad.
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Tesla should have focused on inventing rather than trying to be a businessman too, like Edison. He was always nuts.
Well, mostly the problem is that the solution for electric generation was found and not wanted..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_fast_reactor
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Maybe. What’s getting all the press right now are the liquid floride thorium reactors and the molten salt reactors. Bill Gates himself through his company called Terrapower is working on a traveling wave design. (don’t ask me what that means.)
100 billion would give us all that is needed to make free energy a reality for the world. The research is done. Tesla knew how and he was killed for knowing it. The means to do it have been suppressed by the Bill Gates etc of the world. Let them pony up!
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Gates argued for 16 billion more worth of federal research. These kinds of numbers support a lot more private money coming into the game. Nobody is going to risk a lot of money if they believe the government is going to shoot them down.
The market will provide all of the incentive needed to research new energy sources. The government has a very poor track record of picking new technologies. It may be an over-simplification but one thinks of the governments choice to subsidize the work of Samuel Langley over true innovators such as the Wright Brothers.
Tesla was a prodigy and true innovator who had formal training and used it. He conceived what has become our entire AC power grid along with induction motors. Somehow he came up with these momentous ideas without any help from the government. If in fact the government had somehow been involved they almost certainly would have favored Edison’s vastly inferior DC system.
“Gates argued for 16 billion more worth of federal research. “
Gates can write the check for $16 billion himself. If he thinks it is so important then he should stop spending his own money on birth control and vaccines in Africa.
Liberal billionaires always have ways to spend the taxpayer’s money on causes and activities they would never finance themselves.
Is he a college graduate?!!!
Gates can write the check for $16 billion himself. If he thinks it is so important then he should stop spending his own money on birth control and vaccines in Africa.
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Disagree. In any case he is putting his money where his mouth is. He has invested in 4th generation nuclear power company called Terrapower. But he believes there should be more start ups besides his own. Further he thinks that government support will cause more private money to come in from the sidelines for low cost nuclear power plants in just the way it has for wind and solar.
Here’s the deal. Lower cost energy is the key to getting this country out of debt because it add trillions to the economy and many extra bucks to everyone’s pocket.
That’s why energy investment is so important to the future of the USA.
“Bill Gates himself through his company called Terrapower is working on a traveling wave design. (don’t ask me what that means.)”
Traveling wave refers to moving the point of reaction down the length of a fuel rod, like burning an incense stick. Originally, they planned to move along the length of a fixed rod, but now they are looking more at feeding the rod through a fixed point.
The beauty of this design, is that it consumes the “spent” fuel rods that have been accumulating as radioactive waste from our existing reactors. There is already enough of this waste to burn for hundreds of years. The traveling wave design burns it very efficiently and completely - down to a dramatically lower level of radioactivity (pretty safe).
It just makes sense from a business perspective to outsource your costs, so the more Bill Gates can get the federal government to pay the R&D costs, the greater his profit margin.
Also, the long pole in the tent is getting regulatory approval for your design. Having FedGov buy-in to a design would help a lot getting down the critical path for your project. There are a thousand people who can say no, but no single person who can say yes.
It just makes sense from a business perspective to outsource your costs, so the more Bill Gates can get the federal government to pay the R&D costs, the greater his profit margin.
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All true. But. Getting through what entrepreneurs call the valley of death which is a complete product but no customers—is not a trivial matter. There’s are some interesting things the feds can do on this. For instance the DOD wants all their military bases off the grid. So they’re doing all kinds of things to generate energy on base up to and including making plans for 4th generation reactors. The thorium/msr/standing wave companies would be greatly aided if they could get a contract from the DOD to purchase their prototypes & first generation reactors.
Also, the long pole in the tent is getting regulatory approval for your design. Having FedGov buy-in to a design would help a lot getting down the critical path for your project. There are a thousand people who can say no, but no single person who can say yes.
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Agree that regulatory help for 4th generation reactors would go a long way toward keeping the technology from floating overseas.
The payoff of course for going this work is that the cost of energy production would be cut in half. Later there would be even greater reductions.
There’s a new player in this space called Martingale. They just made a bunch of announcements a month ago. I don’t know if they’ve done much but announce that they exist. But their lead staff is very impressive. One guy heled Edward Teller write his last paper on thorium reactor. One guy is a big time manager at google. One guy is a big time ship builder. One guy is from one of the big nuclear labs. They want to mass produce msr reactors from off the shelf components so they don’t have to spend a couple years doing simulations. Google recently gave up on solar. They don’t think that solar or wind will handle base load. Bill Gates thinks the same thing. But with one of the Guys at Martingale being a big time employee at Google...its not hard to guess where funding from Martingale might come from. Interestingly Google likes their people to spend 10-20 percent of their time on projects not related to google.
You might like to read “How to Make Nuclear Cheap”. I recommend it to you:
http://thebreakthrough.org/images/pdfs/Breakthrough_Institute_How_to_Make_Nuclear_Cheap.pdf
I don’t know about Martingale, but I am glad to see an American firm working on such next generation designs. One of the big thrusts of the Obama Admin has been to work with China to develop the Chinese nuclear energy sector (like Clinton did with so many other Chinese industries. They approved four new reactors in the US, because the Chinese could not get parts for theirs cheaply enough, without US production runs.
Chinese strategy has been to own the Intellectual Property on the most promising Fourth Generation designs like Thorium pellet and molten salt reactors..
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