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The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

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Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#131

Post by hannob »

latchkey wrote: post #121

> US is incredibly slow in building transmission lines, takes decades. A lot of bitcoin miners use stranded power, which would otherwise go to waste. People often respond to me on HN that the power could be easily/cheaply sent elsewhere for better uses [0]. Comments like this just re-enforce the fact that these people have literally no idea what they are talking about. Thanks, I'll favorite this one. =) [0] https://n…

> A lot of bitcoin miners use stranded power, which would otherwise go to waste.

Often claimed, rarely supported by evidence or numbers.

It's also unlikely to be very practical, because that'd essentially mean running bitcoin miners in load-balancing mode, and not running them most of the time. Given that bitcoin hardware tends to loose value quickly, as the next generation of mining hardware comes to the market, this is unlikely to be a feasible model.

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#132

Post by hmottestad »

nextaccountic wrote: post #125
latchkey wrote: post #121

> US is incredibly slow in building transmission lines, takes decades. A lot of bitcoin miners use stranded power, which would otherwise go to waste. People often respond to me on HN that the power could be easily/cheaply sent elsewhere for better uses [0]. Comments like this just re-enforce the fact that these people have literally no idea what they are talking about. Thanks, I'll favorite this one. =) [0] https://n…

There is no law of nature that says that the pace of US infrastructure improvements should be like that. It's a matter of policy. The US has built impressive projects before at a staggering rate, and they could do so in the future. (currently China is doing the same but on a larger scale. It shows it is possible if you have the political will) When people say that the power "could" be sent elsewhere, they are right,…

I think that “just need to” can be said about a lot of things. And even space x can build rockets, it’s not exactly brain surgery!

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#134

Post by tfourb »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #128
lambda wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And an AP1000 reactor costs about $6.8 billion to build, and substantially higher operating costs. 68% of the power for 14% of the price seems like a pretty good deal to me, there's a reason people are investing more in solar than nuclear, it's just more cost effective. edit: Oh, and that $6.8 billion looks optimistic. This project with two AP1000s looks like it costs $30 billion. https://www.ans.org/news/article-394…

When comparing solar to nuclear we also need to include storage and dimensioning to get an equivalent guaranteed 24/7 output. This might still make solar cheaper but difference will be smaller than headline numbers (and you might retort that for nuclear we then need to include dismantling costs as well).

In that case you'd also need to model how the cost changes if you combine solar with wind and other renewables. Wind and solar are to some extend complementary (there is statistically more wind when there is little sun and vice versa). You'd also need to account for distributing solar and wind across large geographic areas (i.e. the U.S. is so wide that there are a few hours difference between the sun setting on the east coast and on the west coast, somewhere wind is always blowing, etc.)

There are probably studies that have done an analysis of this kind for the entire U.S. and calculated various scenarios. I know that these have been done for Germany and other European countries. A 100% renewable system usually comes out cheaper than including nuclear in the mix to any large extend (though Germany has no remaining old reactors which could get their lifetime enhanced relatively cheaply).

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#135

Post by Jgrubb »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #127
ayk3 wrote: post #86

Contrast this news with that of LPEA from neighboring Durango area putting a stop to new solar installation due to maxing out energy needs https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/la-plata-electric-put...

Promote electric vehicles, heat pumps, inductive cooktops, and other decarbonization that would increase electricity demand since you've got a plethora of electricity? Nope. Incentivize home energy storage and invest in grid level energy storage and encourage purchasing EVs that can be used as grid batteries? Nope. Invest in better grid-level interconnects to export electricity? Nope. Work with the community to attra…

I doubt they're morons, more likely perfectly intelligent and know exactly what they're doing and for whom.

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#137

Post by fnordpiglet »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #122

> Having said that, we're going to be producing a large amount of power. So I'm not sure that all of it will be able to be consumed within Colorado.” That’s a surprisingly vague statement on a billion dollar project. I’d expect there would be spreadsheets and models estimating production/consumption locations for decades out and the company would be quoting a percentage figure even if that was a guesstimate.

I’d note that in 2024 $1bb isn’t THAT much money. Further the constraints will likely have more to do with distribution infrastructure outside their control.

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#138

Post by latchkey »

hannob wrote: post #131
latchkey wrote: post #121

> US is incredibly slow in building transmission lines, takes decades. A lot of bitcoin miners use stranded power, which would otherwise go to waste. People often respond to me on HN that the power could be easily/cheaply sent elsewhere for better uses [0]. Comments like this just re-enforce the fact that these people have literally no idea what they are talking about. Thanks, I'll favorite this one. =) [0] https://n…

> A lot of bitcoin miners use stranded power, which would otherwise go to waste. Often claimed, rarely supported by evidence or numbers. It's also unlikely to be very practical, because that'd essentially mean running bitcoin miners in load-balancing mode, and not running them most of the time. Given that bitcoin hardware tends to loose value quickly, as the next generation of mining hardware comes to the market, thi…

I have evidence and numbers.

Update: I got downvoted for not posting them. I did in the link above though.

https://www.coinmint.one/ is the data center. They have about 500MW of power going to them from the Moses-Saunders dam.

They don't need to shut down cause it is hydro and 24/7. They actually help keep the dam running cause they balance the load coming from it. Just like the aluminum smelter before it did. The location of the facility and dam are near the border of Canada and the US. It is very remote and in the middle of nowhere with enough population to consume the 500MW. There are main grid lines going past them, but it would likely need new infrastructure to connect to it at that much power.

I've seen their power costs (including transmission), I can't post that, obviously. But, a large chunk of their costs, is transmission, which pays for the install and maintenance of the lines running the few miles from the dam. These are large / tall physical towers.

Disclosure: I'm a former very large scale bitcoin/litecoin/ethereum miner and now building an AI bare metal gpu service.

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#139

Post by npongratz »

jpgvm wrote: post #115
dangrossman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's financially and politically impossible on a relevant time scale, while solar can be built now.

In America maybe. Lets see what the Chinese do with their nuclear rollout before calling it impossible yet. They might also abandon theirs on account of being able to make solar incredibly cheap domestically, but they also might not, we have to wait and see.

China might also abandon their nuclear rollout in preference to coal -- consider their recent surge in building coal power plants, "despite climate pledges":

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/chinas-coal-country-f...

Or, maybe they'll build out all-of-the-above electricity-generating options, depending on how their political leaders feel.

Re: The Ute Tribe will construct one of the largest solar farms in the US

#140

Post by latchkey »

sitkack wrote: post #136

This could power data centers, then the only outside link needed is fiber optic lines.

Correct. Data centers over casinos.

But then again, those data centers could have bitcoin miners, at which point, we'd be back to the casino. =)

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