Bill Gates sceptical of solar, wind power

Lauding India for doubling its funding for research and development of climate change technology, the former Microsoft CEO and co-founder of the world’s biggest charitable foundation, Bill Gates, says technological innovation is the only way to fight climate change. “If we are going to make the cost of clean energy as inexpensive as hydrocarbons, or coal energy today, which will need innovations. That will mean you won’t have to think about this huge trade-off between ‘Should I be clean’ or ‘Should I electrify’?” he told The Hindu in an exclusive interview.

Mr. Gates was in Paris for the COP21 summit, where he launched a multi-billion dollar 20-nation ‘Breakthrough Energy Coalition,’ and has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice this week, both in Paris and in Delhi on Friday.

Backing India’s stand on ‘climate justice’ or the need for the developing world to be financed for cutting emissions, Mr. Gates said that unless clean energy was made cheaper, it put countries like India in an “impossible” situation. “I can’t comment on climate justice, I don’t know what the definition of that is. I think while the premium cost of clean energy is very high, you force an almost impossible trade-off between two very important goals. My belief is that if you increase the R&D that will lower the price of energy,” he said.

However, Mr. Gates indicated that solar and wind energy, which forms the bulk of India’s clean energy mix, may not be the most viable sources of electricity in future. In its latest plans, the government has announced it will raise its renewable energy production from the current 38 Gigawatts to 175 Gigawatts by 2022, 100 GWs of which would come from solar energy alone.

But Mr. Gates said the “intermittency” of solar and wind makes it unviable, compared with other sources like nuclear energy and new technologies for storage. “Energy has to be reliable, and when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, you still need energy. So the whole system designed in terms of storage and transmission gets quite complex. Wind and solar can be a part of your mix, but you can’t do much with them without a storage miracle.”

Mr. Gates words are significant as it runs counter to the solar alliance of countries with hot climates, which Mr. Modi launched at the Paris summit

To the criticism of “philanthro-capitalism” that the Gates foundation funds programmes tied to technologies and companies wherein Mr. Gates has interests, including intellectual property rights, he said he finds the allegations “amusing”. “If you think the way to make money is to come to India and help people get healthcare, that is one strange way to make money,” he said. “The healthcare system in India is under-funded , and we give money away to it, not make money. We give hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to help children get nutrition. We don’t get some benefit back from that.”