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Are you sure it's profit, as opposed to certainty, that drives the investment mindset here? I agree that renewables and distributed energy generation are the p
by jka 5y ago
Are you sure it's profit, as opposed to certainty, that drives the investment mindset here?
I agree that renewables and distributed energy generation are the path forward, but I can understand a lot of investors having reasonable scepticism (even after more than a decade of proven wind + solar ramp-up) about those technologies remaining market-leading.
Under that mindset, it's not so much about "will investment in this individual company make {me/my portfolio audience} the largest return", but moreso "is this the investment that I can leave as-is for twenty years and be most-confident about".
- ggm 5y agoPossibly I'm over-thinking it. but, I see a tendency to "we'll do it for you" thinking. I think Gates and his friends are attracted to solve "the problems only large, centrally managed capital can solve" by deploying things which work, but also which make them profit. The choice to say "we'll fund local initiative which reduce the dependency on centrally managed large assets" is there. I agree that SMR, as a midpoint to the old behemoths and fully distributed, is a good bet: once it works, it keeps on working, and it can be plugged into the distribution network simply. PV and Wind requires balancing, more thinking, intermittency calls for overbuild.. its not like the alternative is problem free even if I like it. And there is a compelling energy-density story too. I suspect they like the law of big numbers: capital costs being equal, GW for $ you get more from SMR. Minus lawyers, time delay, lawyer-induced excess safety build, more cowbell (sorry Lawyers)...