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Bitcoin Mining Is Reshaping the Energy Sector and No One Is Talking About It

7 points by hui-zheng 5y ago

johnny35 5y ago
Batteries aren’t just about using the generated energy in a useful way, they are about making renewables more profitable by giving them a buyer for all the energy they can produce. Miners are money batteries in this way - they can be fired up on demand to soak up energy the grid doesn’t need, and instead of finding a buyer they can just directly convert excess energy into income.
- jcrben 5y ago
  Miners suck money away from real batteries who would otherwise be smoothing out the peaks. It's not good for efficiency or climate change. People point to miners using up excessive hydro or geothermal capacity (Quebec and Iceland), but these areas were prior doing low-carbon factory work such as aluminum manufacturing.
kwertyoowiyop 5y ago
If only Yahoo’s “Story Continues” button actually worked on an iPad, then I could read the whole story.
- spurgu 5y ago
  Try this: https://archive.md/UqKK0 https://archive.md/UqKK0 I wasn't able to access the article at all due to it redirecting through https://guce.yahoo.com/consent https://guce.yahoo.com/consent which is blocked by my DNS (NextDNS.io). The archive.md links don't work for Cloudflare DNS users though.
spurgu 5y ago
That's an interesting angle that I hadn't considered before. Not that I don't have serious doubts regarding the viability of Bitcoin overall, but it seems like it could play a role in balancing out the imbalance created by intermittent energy sources.
xyzzyx 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox
- danuker 5y ago
  > Jevons observed that England's consumption of coal soared after James Watt introduced the Watt steam engine, which greatly improved the efficiency of the coal-fired steam engine from Thomas Newcomen's earlier design. This is good, I believe efficient use of resources is key to a better standard of living. But all externalities should be priced-in: the cost of pollution should be paid to the people suffering from it.

7 points by hui-zheng 5y ago

Batteries aren’t just about using the generated energy in a useful way, they are about making renewables more profitable by giving them a buyer for all the energy they can produce. Miners are money batteries in this way - they can be fired up on demand to soak up energy the grid doesn’t need, and instead of finding a buyer they can just directly convert excess energy into income.

jcrben 5y ago
Miners suck money away from real batteries who would otherwise be smoothing out the peaks. It's not good for efficiency or climate change. People point to miners using up excessive hydro or geothermal capacity (Quebec and Iceland), but these areas were prior doing low-carbon factory work such as aluminum manufacturing.

kwertyoowiyop 5y ago

If only Yahoo’s “Story Continues” button actually worked on an iPad, then I could read the whole story.

spurgu 5y ago
Try this: https://archive.md/UqKK0 https://archive.md/UqKK0 I wasn't able to access the article at all due to it redirecting through https://guce.yahoo.com/consent https://guce.yahoo.com/consent which is blocked by my DNS (NextDNS.io). The archive.md links don't work for Cloudflare DNS users though.

spurgu 5y ago

That's an interesting angle that I hadn't considered before. Not that I don't have serious doubts regarding the viability of Bitcoin overall, but it seems like it could play a role in balancing out the imbalance created by intermittent energy sources.

xyzzyx 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox

danuker 5y ago
> Jevons observed that England's consumption of coal soared after James Watt introduced the Watt steam engine, which greatly improved the efficiency of the coal-fired steam engine from Thomas Newcomen's earlier design. This is good, I believe efficient use of resources is key to a better standard of living. But all externalities should be priced-in: the cost of pollution should be paid to the people suffering from it.