In my homeland, Greece, there has been a clean energy investment boom during 2002 - 2012 and from 2016 till today. Most of the investments were driven by incentives given from the government and not from a sustainability focus from the side of the investors. With around 4.1 million m2 (2.9 GWth) of solar thermal systems installed, Greece has the second largest total capacity in Europe after Germany. But what happens when all of these photovoltaic panels need to be replaced? Is there a sustainable supply chain of selection, disposal and disassembling?

Most solar manufacturers claim their panels will last for about 25 years. That means the solar e-waste glut is coming. When solar panels do reach their end of their life today, they face a few possible fates. Under E.U. law, producers are required to ensure their solar panels are recycled properly. Even when recycling happens, there’s a lot of room for improvement. A solar panel is essentially an electronic sandwich. The filling is a thin layer of crystalline silicon cells, which are insulated and protected from the elements on both sides by sheets of polymers and glass. It’s all held together in an aluminum frame. On the back of the panel, a junction box contains copper wiring that channels electricity away as it’s being generated. In a country with a really small number of specialised waste facilities, I believe this will be a big issue in the future. If we want to talk about sustainable sources of energy we need to act quickly and close this circle by investing in specialized e-waste facilities. At the moment the cost of running one facility far exceeds the revenue, probably on the order of a 10-to-1 ratio. 

But what about nuclear energy? The technology is relatively basic: Atoms are split and the energy that’s released heats water to produce steam that moves electricity-generating turbines. Of course, when things go wrong with that 20th-century technology – whether due to nature or human error – they can go horribly wrong. Nuclear power is also notorious for cost overruns and is relatively more expensive compared to renewables like solar. Although Greece has established the Greek Atomic Energy Commission , a decision has been made not to implement a nuclear power program to generate electricity. Recently Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said Greece would never switch to nuclear power because of frequent earthquakes in the region. Is this the whole truth? For example Thrace region hasn't had an earthquake for more than 100 years. Bulgaria builds nuclear plants nearby. 

For sure I’m not a nuclear engineer or scientist but I've been watching the sector closely for the past 4 years. A lot of innovation is being implemented and new technologies regarding the security and safety of these systems are being introduced. I don’t know, maybe we Greeks should think about nuclear energy opportunities more seriously. :)

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If you ask ten people today, probably nine out of ten (if not everyone) will tell you that they would like to live forever. The idea of eternal life and longevity is appealing. The concept of living a long, healthy, and happy life seems like a god-given gift. But is this feasible? Will everyone have the opportunity to access the latest supplements, be exposed to the latest scientific discoveries that will promote their lifespan, or live in a place that will promote longevity as a whole?

An army of scientists, technologists, researchers, and even authors are trying to learn more about longevity and find ways to promote it. Scientist David Sinclair in his book Lifespan, states that aging is a disease. He argues that we must move away from treating age-related diseases and focus on their root. Reclassifying aging as a disease is a critical first step in this shift in approach.

Along with Sinclair, there is an expanding movement of people stating that we’re wasting money and time on what he calls “whack-a-mole” medicine. We are pursuing cures for individual diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, but these don’t get at the real root of the problem: aging. Stopping the progression of one disease doesn’t make it any less likely that a person will die of another. While lifespans have increased because of this approach, increases in health span haven’t kept pace. Failure to define aging as a disease is also stunting research funding to understand the biology of aging. By defining aging as a disease, laboratories and companies would grow, and innovation and competition would flourish as labs and startups compete for funding.

Finally, we should also understand that longevity is going to be affected by rising temperatures and the quality of the air we breathe, let alone any existential threats to humanity because of global warming. The quest for a longer, happier, and healthier life is an equation with multiple variables that we need to evaluate. From a builder's standpoint, we have to think from the first principles and tackle the individual challenges accordingly. From an investor's standpoint, we need to focus our efforts on the themes of biotechnology and climate change now and not later because here is a massive opportunity of a lifetime to change lives and produce returns.

Industrial biotechnology is the application of basic biology principles in parallel with advanced technology in order to efficiently produce and process chemicals, materials and bio-energy. By utilizing the power of microbiomes, micro-organisms and enzymes industrial biotechnology empowers the production of products in sectors such as food, chemicals, electronics and energy. All the above play a major role in the reduction of CO2 emissions, provide sustainable alternatives to food and fossil-based fuels and lead to improved health and nutrition of the population. The overall idea is to do more with less. Even though the sector is still in its infancy, most, if not all of the countries globally recognize the potential for their citizens.

Industrial biotechnology can drive the change into a bio based economy. Such an economy will be based on a production that relies on biological processes and, as every natural ecosystem, use natural input, expend minimum amount of energy and do not produce waste. The big question is to what extent the industrial biotechnology can transform a universally unsustainable system into a sustainable and bio based one - or just drop a “pinch” of green into a dirty one.

The sector has all the fonts needed in order to deliver big results for the system, but certain actions need to be implemented. All of the nations need to work on long term innovation enabling frameworks that will help scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs unleash the full capabilities of them. Also a supportive funding framework needs to be established. Finally, the markets need to be encouraged through policies and incentives in order to uptake bio based products.

The path to making peoples’ lives happier is not easy, but we need to be mindful of where they are likely to end up if we continue our current path. With this in mind, it is undoubtable that we should explore and support the innovative pathway of industrial biotechnology.

Why is that?

Inflation combined with the current low-to-zero interest rates are currently pushing individuals to invest to high risk/high reward assets in order to help them preserve value and ideally build more of that. Everyone right now can open an account into one of the multiple cryptocurrency exchanges and start investing into protocols and technologies that are positioned to change our world (for the better I hope).

The reported inflation sits at 3.2% but the real number is for bigger for sure (~6%). If the banks give you 0% interest you have to find investments of minimum 7% in order to not lose wealth and value. 

Where you can find them? Into technology and cryptocurrency.

Here we are now again and inflation is still here and “stronger” than ever.

If you look back into the recent history, when governments used quantitative easing to manage the global financial meltdown, inflation did occur in big numbers. Asset prices went up and the wealthier saw their wealth skyrocket.

In what way technology is deflationary? If we watch closely the circular loop of the economy it goes like this: a) governments print tons of money, b) prices go up, c) companies are in need of measures in order to survive, d) companies invest heavy into software and automation in order to replace people who engage in trivial and repeatable work, e)  unemployment numbers go up as people are substituted by software and robots, f) governments need to support the unemployed, g) governments print more money, h) return to b.

Last Sunday I was having lunch with some friends and they were discussing in what ways the iPhone is the absolute tool for their work, entertainment and more. Just take a moment and think about it. In the same moment your iPhone is a phone, a camera, a laptop, a wallet and many more. All these by just paying 600-1000 euro (you can also make it with an older version :)). This is the way technology is deflationary, 600 euro instead of thousands.

What is the conclusion in all of that? Inflation rates gonna stabilize in some way in the future but the circular loop will stay the same. The result will always be the same. The value will be captured by the ones having the assets.

So what you can do about this in order to make it? Make yourself the asset and let inflation drive your value up. Educate yourself in fields like web3.0, biotech and automation. Create products, build communities online and start selling to them. The next ten years will be transformational for our generation and we all have the same opportunities to create. Don’t get distracted by temporary shiny objects and dopamine-related experiences. Stay focused and optimistic. WGMI

But where should someone start from? Where should we focus first? Is it a good choice to try and target everything?

In my way of thinking all of the above are interconnected. If you manage to find ways to handle big amounts of data you will be able to create and train bigger and stronger ML models. That in turn will help you accelerate developments in generative food production, longevity research and sustainable ways to produce and manage energy.

Solving the world’s hardest problems is not an equation that uses only one variable. A lot of ideas, technologies, business models and minds have to come into the table and commit to work closely and in parallel in order for the outcome to be life changing.

As an individual I’m trying to create the mechanism that will accelerate research, product and services building that will contribute in this process in a big and influential way.