Bill Gates leads $1 billion fund to invest in clean energy

Multimillionaire Bill Gates said on Tuesday that US President-elect Donald Trump has the chance to establish his country’s leadership through innovation. Many venture capitalists were investing in these businesses a few years back, but most of these companies failed to attract round two investing.

Gates and several of the investors in the fund will be speaking to the media later today.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a US$1 billion venture capital fund, will focus on “next generation technologies to provide reliable, affordable, zero-carbon energy, food, and products to the world”, according to its website.

Bill Gates just announced a new $1 billion investment in clean energy, called “Breakthrough Energy Ventures”.

Gates announced the wider coalition in March a year ago, but the new ventures fund has a wide team of backers dedicated to funding the coalition’s main goals. Government funding in areas such as battery technology and materials used for solar power, for example, has seeded the growth of those areas, with their commercialization subsequently funded by private investors. The Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), announced Sunday, aims to invest in technologies and companies best suited to reducing carbon emissions.

The billionaire’s Breakthrough Energy Coalition unveiled Breakthrough Energy Ventures on Monday. He criticized what he called a “regulatory overreach” from the EPA in limiting the industry’s capabilities.

“We want to be cheaper than coal or gasoline for transport”. But consumption in countries such as India is growing.

The battle against climate change is being waged, whether the incoming USA administration supports it or not. In recent years, Pruitt along with other Republican attorneys have played a critical role in blocking Obama administration’s attempts to regulate climate change, deportations, and Wall Street.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study in July estimated that between 2006 and 2011 clean energy investors lost more than half the £25bn they put into the sector. He believes there is broad support in Washington for energy research and development.

The current energy secretary was complimentary of the fund. “When you have an opportunity like that it is a good time to invest in it”.

“We need to create new companies to push the boundaries of innovation”.