Honest question about the dead "Bitcoin" comment.
Would consuming solar to mine Bitcoin generate more heat (wrt. global warming) than simply letting the rays heat the earth directly? If so, by what factor?
California can't use all its solar power. That's a problem
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Re: California can't use all its solar power. That's a problem
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please review the last link I provided (Control-F "CAISO is putting more solar on the grid without increasing relative curtailment", graphic below that header). Storage is what is alleviating pressure causing excess curtailment. Excess curtailment is a function of battery deployment rate (transmission too). Only recently has battery storage scaled to catch up to existing solar deployments and the deployment trajector…
"Excess curtailment" implies the existence of non-excessive curtailment. Which is correct, some curtailment is not excessive in a system designed to deliver electricity at the lowest cost. Batteries are great and are rolling out faster than many realize. But their existence also makes it feasible to rollout more renewables, which will lead to more curtailment. You can have a very nerdy conversation about how much cur…
A good example of that kind of discussion:
https://openelectricity.org.au/analysis/what-is-spilled-powe...
> Despite appearing wasteful, the curtailment of renewable energy is an expected feature of the system.
Re: California can't use all its solar power. That's a problem
#13Honest question about the dead "Bitcoin" comment. Would consuming solar to mine Bitcoin generate more heat (wrt. global warming) than simply letting the rays heat the earth directly? If so, by what factor?
Not much difference. The sunlight is either going to heat the earth or be reflected back so it depends a bit what colour the bit of earth would be if there wasn't a solar panel there.