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So China is basically exporting energy for a hefty amount of foreign currency.
by iabacu 9y ago
So China is basically exporting energy for a hefty amount of foreign currency.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- prostoalex 9y agoMining is the best way to export cheap energy without building high-power lines. I am surprised Germany doesn't have more dominance in the field, considering the headlines of their wind energy farms going into negative at certain hours of the day.
- matt4077 9y ago> I am surprised Germany doesn't have more dominance in the field Germany's power grid is well-connected to its neighbours. During peak production of renewable energy, it is "exported" to France, Poland, Austria etc. These neighbours have a different mix of production and can easily scale down power production from fossil fuels. [0]:in quotes, because trade within the EU isn't technically export/import
- taneq 9y agoThis is the first time I've heard "easily" in the same sentence as "scale down power production from fossil fuels". Usually it's everyone whinging about how coal plants can't be efficiently throttled and still burn 50% of their fuel or something at idle.
- ineedasername 9y agoI really don't understand this statement, the energy isn't being transferred between power grids or otherwise exchanged as energy. The energy consumed during mining no longer exists as grid-based energy, it is waste heat. You don't get it back at the other end of another transaction. From the point of view of energy transfer for use in a power grid, mining has a 100% loss rate.
- prostoalex 9y ago> You don't get it back at the other end of another transaction. Neither does the energy exporter. They get money.
- ineedasername 9y agoDo you really not see the difference between money changing hands for a comodity that has a physical basis, and the nominal creation of value through a process where the computation involved results in waste heat?
- prostoalex 9y agoOne of them requires a smaller investment upfront and produces dividends quicker.
- ineedasername 9y agoThis sort of thinking represents all of the things wrong with the current hype-cycle of cryptocurrencies, damaging both their long-term credibility and short-term stability.
- hueving 9y agoThat's like claiming aluminum plants are the best way to export energy without high power lines. You aren't actually exporting energy, you're exporting something created with energy that can't be converted back into that energy. People can exchange it for more energy, but you haven't reduced energy generation.
- Symbiote 9y agoAluminium can be turned back into energy. There have been proposals to ship blocks of aluminium from Iceland to Britain, oxidise it (capture the electricity) and send the oxide back. http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=765 http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=765
- user5994461 9y agoLooks like a bullshit marketing document. It's based on using their new magic experimental batteries that can do 10 times better than existing batteries.
- ineedasername 9y agoNot really exporting energy, the energy isn't being exported to another country. From an energy perspective, they are converting heterogeneous energy sources into homogeneous waste-heat.
- iabacu 9y agoI guess not in the traditional sense of the “export” word, but from the foreign trade balance perspective, it’s essentially an export product.
- ineedasername 9y agoOkay, the bitcoins may be an export product but not the energy. Energy is no more exported here than it would be exported if use with non-metaphorical mining of iron ore. In real world mining you might say energy is converted into a physical comodity, e.g., the ore. In bitcoin, it's converted into a much more abstract financial instrument & transaction verification service.
- noonespecial 9y agoNo, they are exporting cryptographic proof that they turned that energy into heat.