4 ms·

It’s the storage that’s the problem, not the transmission. Have talked with several in this business, their take is that it allows plants to have extra capacity

It’s the storage that’s the problem, not the transmission. Have talked with several in this business, their take is that it allows plants to have extra capacity to expand to meet peak needs, instead of flirting with disaster. Most plants are hard to spin up and down, so having an alternative way to monetize the energy creation is super important.

latchkey 4y ago
In the past, it was aluminum smelting pots, which can't go cold or they take a huge amount of effort to spin up again. They built huge dams just for this [0]. When those plants shut down, the power, which was transmitted directly to the plants, had nowhere to go. Sending it somewhere else requires building high voltage transmission towers, which is very expensive to build as well as maintain. Coinmint [1] took over the old Alcoa plant and is now pulling power from that dam. As it was explained to me by the head electrician when I visited, Coinmint is doing the dam a favor by having a constant draw of power to replace what was once the smelters. They also are paying for the electricity, which helps with maintenance of the dam, which is effectively a national resource. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam [1] https://www.coinmint.one/ https://www.coinmint.one/
Reason077 4y ago
> "It’s the storage that’s the problem, not the transmission... Most plants are hard to spin up and down" This is true for nuclear and some types of fossil-fuel power plants. But for hydro, all you have to do to vary the power output is adjust the amount of water running through the turbines. Plus, hydro plants that have their own storage lakes/dams have built-in storage: any water you're not using for generation can be saved in the lake for when it's needed. (OK, some rivers have minimum flow requirements so that fish don't die and water can be used downstream etc...)

latchkey 4y ago

In the past, it was aluminum smelting pots, which can't go cold or they take a huge amount of effort to spin up again. They built huge dams just for this [0]. When those plants shut down, the power, which was transmitted directly to the plants, had nowhere to go. Sending it somewhere else requires building high voltage transmission towers, which is very expensive to build as well as maintain. Coinmint [1] took over the old Alcoa plant and is now pulling power from that dam. As it was explained to me by the head electrician when I visited, Coinmint is doing the dam a favor by having a constant draw of power to replace what was once the smelters. They also are paying for the electricity, which helps with maintenance of the dam, which is effectively a national resource. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses-Saunders_Power_Dam [1] https://www.coinmint.one/ https://www.coinmint.one/

Reason077 4y ago

> "It’s the storage that’s the problem, not the transmission... Most plants are hard to spin up and down" This is true for nuclear and some types of fossil-fuel power plants. But for hydro, all you have to do to vary the power output is adjust the amount of water running through the turbines. Plus, hydro plants that have their own storage lakes/dams have built-in storage: any water you're not using for generation can be saved in the lake for when it's needed. (OK, some rivers have minimum flow requirements so that fish don't die and water can be used downstream etc...)