What Bill Gates Could Have Done.

Every day technology changes. And if you spend time with people in high tech industries, you're bombarded by these daily updates.

But yesterday over lunch, a tech engineer complained about how his electric bills have gone through the roof thanks to the new smart meters.

We talked about solar panels, etc., and I was once again struck by how much time has been devoted to computer updates over the last few years, yet so little money was spent by people like Bill Gates to update solar energy. Right now, we need huge expensive solar panels which aren't as efficient as they could be. But what if instead of developing smaller phones and faster computers, Gates along with other business people had put together teams to develop solar energy?

Maybe we'd have solar panels the size of cell phones now. Panels which could be plugged into a tiny unit attached to our houses. This would have made a major difference in our quest for cheap, clean energy.

Well, Gates didn't. And so while our bills go through the roof, we have to wait until something better comes along.