Bill Gates on the future of energy

(LP NOTE: There is an interview with Bill Gates about the future of energy in WIRED's July 2011 issue. The interview has not been posted yet, but a summary can be found in the following article.)

‘If we don’t have innovation in energy, we don’t have much at all.’

Gates: ‘Cute’ Tech Won’t Solve Planet’s Energy Woes

By Dave Mosher
May 3, 2011
WIRED

NEW YORK — Bill Gates has a simple plan for the future of energy: Don’t rely on the cute stuff.

Sure, attaching solar panels to roofs, building windmills in backyards or deploying other small-scale energy technologies is a fine idea, Microsoft’s co-founder told a packed auditorium at the Wired Business Conference: Disruptive by Design.

Trouble is, they can’t significantly aide developing nations thirsty for cheap energy, he said.

“The solutions that work in the rich world don’t even come close to solving the [energy] problem,” said Gates, interviewed by Wired Magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. “If you’re interested in cuteness, the stuff in the home is the place to go. If you’re interested in solving the world’s energy problems, it’s things like big [solar projects] in the desert.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is the largest public philanthropic organization in the world. Using an endowment of more than $36 billion, the organization supports research intended to serve humanitarian causes.

On his own, however, Gates heavily invests in dozens of technology efforts, from better batteries to safer nuclear reactors. He thinks governments like the U.S. spend too much money on subsidizing old technology rather than research that could lead to cleaner, safer and cheaper energy.

(Continued here.)