Bill Gates is known for thinking big, so when it comes to green products and technology his opinion is that individual solar panels, energy efficient light bulbs, appliances and hybrid cars are not going to be enough to meet global demand for energy. That's because of the massive demand expected to come from rapidly developing economies going forward. Gates has a novel solution, which involves richer countries funding basic research and solutions which can be deployed in developing nations to produce renewable energy on a large scale, such as deserts filled with solar panels or nuclear power.
Towards his goal of total decarbonization in industrialized nations, Gates puts a lot of faith in solar and nuclear technologies. And he's put his money where his mouth is, investing millions in Seattle-based nuclear firm TerraPower, which designs a reactor fueled b depleted, rather than enriched, uranium. This reactor should produce a thousandth of the waste that a typical nuclear plant would, and run for 50 years without refueling.
