Over 2 percent of the US’s electricity generation now goes to bitcoin - eviltoast
  • Rivalarrival@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    We need to shift to demand shaping. Storing power generated during the day to be used overnight is not particularly efficient, and requires massive pumped storage facilities. We need to use power at the time it is produced. If we do not have sufficient demand at the time of peak production, energy prices will go to zero (or even below zero!) during those times, and there will be no incentive to continue rolling out solar to meet demand earlier in the day, later in the day, and on cloudy days.

    We need much more solar rollout to fully meet demand during marginal or even poor conditions, but that much generation capacity is far more than we can use at that time.

    We need a massive load that comes online during optimal generation conditions, but which can be shed under clouds or at low sun angles. Something that will give the power companies an incentive to keep rolling out solar even when we have excess optimal generation capacity.

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Reducing wastage, increasing base load of renewables, back up storage and peak load usage and interconnected grids are all used. This suggests reduce wastage, which should not be ignored. Bitcoin wastes the energy solving problems that are computationally difficult but not useful. That’s wastage.