Breakthrough Energy Explained

Breakthrough Energy
Type:	Private
Industry:	Energy
Predecessors:	-->
Successors:	-->
Founder:	Bill Gates
Founders:	-->
Hq Location City:	Kirkland, Washington
Areas Served:	-->
Owners:	-->
Website:	breakthroughenergy.org

Breakthrough Energy is the umbrella name of several organizations, founded by Bill Gates in 2015, that aim to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and in other technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It invests in a variety of startup companies that are attempting to commercialize new concepts such as nuclear fusion, large-capacity batteries to store renewable energy, and microbe-generated biofuels.^[1]

History

At the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in November 2015, Gates announced that a coalition of 28 high net-worth investors from ten countries had committed to the Breakthrough Energy initiative. A complementary initiative of Gates, Mission Innovation, was announced at the same time.^[2]

In December 2016, a group of investors collectively worth announced more personal commitment to funding the efforts of a fund "focused on fighting climate change by investing in clean energy innovation." The fund is named Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund.^[3]

Strategy

At its inception, Gates explained, "The renewable technologies we have today, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future... But given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths."^[4] Breakthrough Energy invests primarily in businesses where the risk of failure is high and the timeframe for return on investment is 20 years. Traditional venture capitalists look for a return on investment in five years, which may not be enough for the special challenges of the energy sector.

Members

The group is spearheaded by Bill Gates, who previously announced a personal $2 billion investment,^[5] and includes:^{[6] [7] [8]}

• Jeff Bezos
• Marc Benioff
• Michael Bloomberg
• Richard Branson
• Ray Dalio^[9]
• Reid Hoffman
• Jack Ma
• George Soros
• Tom Steyer
• Meg Whitman
• Dani El Zain
• Mark Zuckerberg
• University of California, the sole institutional investor at launch^[10]
• Nat Simons
• Mukesh Ambani^[11]

Criticism

There has been criticism that the coalition was announced too early, before crucial details had been confirmed. At launch, a Gates Foundation spokesman confirmed that investment professionals had yet to be appointed, named investors—other than Gates—had not publicly stated their level of investment and a financial structure had not been confirmed.^[12]

Notable projects

• Blue Frontier - a startup developing new air-conditioning technologies^[13]
• Verdox — carbon capture. On February 2, 2022, Breakthrough Energy agreed to join an investors syndicate providing $80 million in capital to Verdox, Inc., a startup company attempting to scale a new carbon capture and removal platform developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—one of five carbon capture technology investments the organization would make by the beginning of the following May.^{[14] [15] [16]} The Verdox, Inc. carbon capture design, created by chemical engineers T. Alan Hatton and Sahag Voskian,^{[17] [18] [19]} co-won a $1 million preliminary prize along with Carbfix (co-founded by geochemist Wallace S. Broecker) from an X Prize Foundation contest funded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
• Methanol fuel cells (August 2022), conversion of methanol to electricity^[20]
• Data Blanket - Wildfire drone technology start-up
• Dioxycle, a startup developing sustainable ethylene from recycled carbon emissions.^[21]

Some of the activities include how to connect producers and consumers of green hydrogen.^[22]

See also

• Global Apollo Programme

References

Bundled references

External links

• Official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: Billionaire-Backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures Makes 7 More Investments. 2020-11-23. www.greentechmedia.com.
2. Web site: Announcing: "Mission Innovation". National Archives. whitehouse.gov. 29 November 2015 . 30 November 2015.
3. Delaney, Kevin (12 December 2016) Bill Gates and investors worth $170 billion are launching a fund to fight climate change through energy innovation Quartz, Quartz Media, Inc. Retrieved 1 January 2019
4. News: Milman. Oliver . 30 November 2015. Zuckerberg, Gates and other tech titans form clean energy investment coalition. The Guardian. 1 December 2015.
5. Web site: Chhabra. Esha . Bill Gates Rallies With Tech Leaders To Launch A Multi-Billion Dollar Energy Fund. Forbes. 30 November 2015.
6. Lapowsky. Issie . Tech Billionaires Team Up to Take On Climate Change. . Condé Nast Publications. 30 November 2015.
7. Web site: Bellware. Kim . World's Tech Giants Team Up For Mega Investment In Clean Energy. The Huffington Post. 30 November 2015 . The Huffington Post Media Group. 30 November 2015.
8. Web site: Cooper. Anderson . Bill Gates: How the World Can Avoid a Climate Disaster. 60 Minutes. 15 February 2021 . CBS News. 17 February 2021.
9. Web site: BEV Board and Investors Breakthrough Energy . 2023-10-11 . breakthroughenergy.org . en-US.
10. News: Green. Emily . UC joins Bill Gates' clean-energy investment initiative. 30 November 2015. San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. 29 November 2015.
11. Web site: 2020-11-13. Mukesh Ambani's RIL to invest $50 mn in Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures. 2020-11-23. The Financial Express. en-US.
12. Web site: Primack. Dan. Bill Gates' Clean Energy Plan Isn't Ready for Primetime. Fortune. Time, Inc.. 2 December 2015.
13. Web site: Air conditioning is a climate disaster and Bill Gates is investing in this startup to fix it . 2022-07-28. Clifford. Catherine . CNBC .
14. News: Verdox Captures $80M to Develop Novel Electric Carbon Removal Technology. February 2, 2022. Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. July 7, 2022.
15. News: Rathi. Akshat. February 2, 2022. Bill Gates Invests in Carbon Capture Startup After Tech Breakthrough. Bloomberg News. July 7, 2022.
16. News: Clifford. Catherine. May 7, 2022. Carbon capture challenges are not deterring investor at Bill Gates' firm. CNBC. July 7, 2022.
17. News: Chandler. David. October 24, 2019. MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air. MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. July 18, 2022.
18. News: Stauffer. Nancy W.. July 9, 2020. A new approach to carbon capture. MIT News. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. July 18, 2022.
19. Voskian. Sahag. Hatton. T. Alan. 2019. Faradaic electro-swing reactive adsorption for CO₂ capture. Energy & Environmental Science. Royal Society of Chemistry. 2019. 12. 3530–3547. 10.1039/C9EE02412C. 208719788 . free. 1721.1/123890. free.
20. Web site: Breakthrough Energy Ventures backs methanol fuel cell company Blue World Technologies . Green Car Congress.
21. News: Jessop . Simon . July 25, 2023 . Dioxycle raises $17 million to help develop green ethylene . July 15, 2024 . Reuters.
22. Web site: Collins . Leigh . How to make expensive green hydrogen commercially viable today — without subsidies Recharge . Recharge Latest renewable energy news . https://web.archive.org/web/20220111194937/https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/how-to-make-expensive-green-hydrogen-commercially-viable-today-without-subsidies/2-1-1142848 . 11 January 2022 . en . 11 January 2022 . live.