The Energy Transition and technologies

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by Julio

Don't know if it was a planned usage, or if it is because renewables are running a little low right now, but there is actually 'generation' from batteries in Alberta right now. 18 whole megs.

They are allowed to offer into the market. You can see that the pool price jumped to $213.93 and the batteries were dispatched based on the merit order.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

One of those under the radar but hugely impactful things happening in the world is the insane amount of energy we are going to need for everyone to be on the cloud, adopting IoT, and using AI (and AGI in the not too distant future). That isn't even mentioning the amount of energy needed for things like blockchains, quantum computing, EVs, and so forth.

The world is going to be getting more nuclear if for no other reason than to keep up with compounding demand.

Bitcoin mining is something like 1,000kWh a coin. (Or was it per transaction? Minor detail.) That's almost 7,000km of driving in a Model 3 (14.5 kWh/100km google tells me). That's an absurd waste of energy in my opinion.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by kevman

Bitcoin mining is something like 1,000kWh a coin. (Or was it per transaction? Minor detail.) That's almost 7,000km of driving in a Model 3 (14.5 kWh/100km google tells me). That's an absurd waste of energy in my opinion.

Even with recently released mining ASICs, there is barely any operating profit left after electricity costs (unless you get very low industrial rates). For this ASIC that was supposedly just released in June, it's over 400 thousand kWh per coin (assuming difficulty stays the same).


https://www.asicminervalue.com/miner...-s21-pro-234th

[DoubleK]

I don't have an issue with crypto farms sucking up excess power so long as it doesn't impact other customer groups though things like increasing transmission charges. They should also be placed on Time of Use rate schemes (honestly every jurisdiction should do this for all customers) so that they don't inflate prices during high demand periods.

The best use for surplus electrons would be to store them, but the economics are not quite there yet at a scale that moves the needle.