The Benefits of Green Energy Investments — Bill Gates, Elon Musk & Richard Branson
By: Restart Energy
Tags: Clean Energy, Investors, Climate Change, Green Energy, Sustainable Development

Worldwide, there is an increasing trend regarding renewable energy sources, and an increasing number of tech start-ups are taking up the challenge of coming up with the best solution on the market in order to achieve such a trailblazing goal in the energy industry.

In order to achieve such big goals, any high-achieving start-up in this sector needs a healthy dose of capital infusion. Important players in the business area, as well as world leaders, have decided to invest their time and money aiming to encourage these evolving market structures in the energy sector.

Bill Gates and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition

The man who founded Microsoft is also a well-esteemed philanthropist, investor, author, and humanitarian. His foundation and collateral projects have helped millions of people on different accounts: poverty, encouraging the mass-adoption of green energy consumption, etc. It all started with a vision for a better world through created custom solutions.

With Gates at the top, the Coalition features names as Richard Branson (Founder of Virgin), Jeff Bezos (Founder & CEO of Amazon), and Jack Ma (Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group) amongst others. The group of investors has chosen to work together in a new investment fund that is committed to seeing through the transformation towards clean energy sources and consumption.

Elon Musk and SolarCity

Through his company, SolarCity, Musk aims to bring solar panel roofs into mainstream consumption, providing access to private energy sources and to the technology able to transform all of us into more aware consumers.

SolarCity markets, manufactures, and installs residential and commercial solar panels in the US. In 2016, the company merged with Tesla, Inc. and now offers energy storage services through Tesla, including a turnkey residential battery backup service that incorporates Tesla’s Powerwall.

The entrepreneur’s predictions about the future of the power market embody Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy through increasingly available and affordable electric vehicles and energy products. Given the increased demand for such products, the market needs to adjust, creating more options and tools for the end-consumer.

By “2022, Musk plans to build the world’s largest virtual power plant. This plan involves rolling out free solar panels and Tesla batteries to 50,000 homes in South Australia over four years”. He envisions society as being powered exclusively via green energy, both producers and consumers co-existing within a sustainable environment, collaborating to improve the planet.

Richard Branson and the Clean Energy Dividend

Nowadays, energy needs and consumption put regular consumers into several difficult situations. Centralized production influences the value invoices have. Due to tax regulations and other fixed costs involved in consumption prices go up, generating increased spend for individuals.

No matter how much energy is consumed, these costs cannot be eliminated, for they are the ones that make the system work. Consumers end up paying more than they utilize, and so an increased need to equally distribute these expenses appears.

On his personal blog featured on the Virgin.com website, Branson proposes a concept that would have a positive impact on the mass consumption that has proven to be damaging to the environment and to energy client’s expenses:

“A global emergency can only be solved by taking global action” — In the words of Sir Richard Branson (CEO of the Virgin Group), governments, businesses and civil societies need to come together aiming to solve the climate change issue as soon as possible, and work on finding the best solutions through which those transformations can see the light of day.