Each Monday Nikolas Badminton, Futurist Speaker, shares the top 3 to 5 energy revolution stories that have been revealed to the world in the past week.
In Energy Revolutions – Billionaires take action we look at the trends that we should be aware of today, December 12th, 2016. We see nuclear Bill Gates driving change with his friends, the Dutch stepping up to ban combustible engines, and places where renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels.

Bill Gates and investors worth $170 billion are launching a fund to fight climate change through energy innovation

Bill Gates is leading a more than $1 billion fund focused on fighting climate change by investing in clean energy innovation.

The Microsoft co-founder and his all-star line-up of fellow investors plan to announce tomorrow the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, which will begin making investments next year. The BEV fund, which has a 20-year duration, aims to invest in the commercialization of new technologies that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in areas including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, and energy-system efficiency.

Anything that leads to cheap, clean, reliable energy we’re open-minded to,” says Gates, who is serving as chairman of BEV and anticipates being actively involved.

Read more at Quartz

Dutch government: only EVs and hydrogen cars from 2035, phase-out natural gas

he Dutch government has presented a long-term energy plan that stipulates that no new cars with combustion engines may be sold from 2035 on. In addition, in the Netherlands – for over 50 years the largest natural gas producer in the EU – all houses will be disconnected from the gas grid by 2050. The plan has broad parliamentary support – in fact, many political parties believe it does not go far enough.
Perhaps the most striking part of the “energy agenda” presented by Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp on Wednesday 7 December (see here for more information in Dutch) is that it received such a critical response from both green NGOs and left-leaning parties in Parliament. They complained that it is not ambitious enough.
More neutral observers may feel differently. With this plan, the Netherlands – home country of Shell, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world – may be one of the first countries in the world to put a specific date to the end of the combustion engine car. The “agenda” states that from 2035 on all cars sold should be zero-emission, i.e. either electric or hydrogen-driven.
Read more at Energy Post

Six places where renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels

In the race to reduce the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, cost is a huge factor. It’s taken years, but advances in technology and increases in both efficiency and output have helped bring down the expense of renewable energy, which has in turn increased demand. Globally, fossil fuels are still cheaper than these alternative sources, but there are a few places around the world where clean energy is winning, dollar for dollar. Sometimes, too, there’s so much of it that the market price drops to zero. With the cost of renewable energy getting lower by the year, if not the month, environmental advocates are hopeful that energy sources like solar and wind power can eventually edge out fossil fuels entirely. Let’s take a look at some of the locales where renewable energy is proving that a clean world doesn’t have to be more expensive.
Read more at Engadget

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Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker that researches, speaks, and writes about the future of work, how technology is affecting the workplace, how workers are adapting, the sharing economy, and how the world is evolving. He appears at conferences in Canada, USA, UK, and Europe. Email him to book him for your radio, TV show, or conference.