Bill Gates in $276m clean energy partnership with UK

Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Catalyst will invest $276 million over ten years to drive UK’s new clean energy technologies, including green hydrogen.

On October 19, UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson and Bill Gates announced a new partnership between Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and the UK government. The goal is to drive investment into the next generation of innovative clean energy technologies.

Breakthrough Energy is the umbrella of several organizations founded by Bill Gates to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and greenhouse gas reduction. In other words, Catalyst is a program under that umbrella. It is a new model for public-private sector partnership that brings together businesses, governments, and individuals to invest in critical climate technologies.

The program specifically focuses on four key green technology areas:

• green hydrogen
• long term energy storage
• sustainable aviation fuels
• direct air capture

The partnership leverages £200 million ($276m) of private sector investment in the UK to push the development of the technologies needed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It was announced at the Global Investment Summit.

In addition, the UK government itself has already committed at least £200m for such projects as part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

Boris Johnson said: “We will only achieve our ambitious climate goals if we rapidly scale up new technologies in areas like green hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels – technologies that seemed impossible just a few years ago.”

Bill Gates added: “In order to achieve net-zero emissions, we need to reduce the costs of clean technologies so they can compete with and replace the high-emitting products we use today – I call this difference in price the Green Premium.

Working with public and private sector leaders, including the UK, Catalyst will be a key vehicle for reducing Green Premiums, building the clean industries of tomorrow, and creating lasting jobs in communities around the world.”

Over the next ten years, Catalyst will work with the UK government to support the commercialisation of decarbonisation technologies. It will also help to rapidly drive down the cost of green technologies that are too expensive to scale.