We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
theatlantic.com
We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
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Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#2"There are many people working on storage—batteries are a form of storage, and there’s a few others, like compressed air, hot metals. But it’s not at all clear that we will get grid-scale economic storage."
Grid-scale storage is the key. Duke Energy is one of the leaders in this effort, at least among the major utilities [1].
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#3All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either.
I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#4[deleted]
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#5All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
The whole crypto-currency scene is increasingly seeming like a huge Ponzi scheme. I really wonder at what point popular opinion will no longer support wasting electrical power on mining a digital currency.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#6All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
If the energy comes from a source where gathering and expending it doesn't have any adverse environmental effects then it's hard to say using it is "wasteful" - the only real problem comes if you assume using more power means more coal is burned and the like. Heavy coin mining tends to be done around the cheapest energy sources like hydro, and in the interim before burning fossil fuels is fully phased out I don't think the additional use from coin mining is going to be that big of a deal compared to people using inefficient air conditioner setups, heating their homes with electric too much, leaving all the lights and the TV on when they go out, or a bunch of other things that can add up to the additional power miners use.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#7All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
If the energy comes from a source where gathering and expending it doesn't have any adverse environmental effects then it's hard to say using it is "wasteful" - the only real problem comes if you assume using more power means more coal is burned and the like. Heavy coin mining tends to be done around the cheapest energy sources like hydro, and in the interim before burning fossil fuels is fully phased out I don't thi…
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
I beg to differ - currently just Bitcoin mining uses as much energy as country of Iceland - anything consuming energy on a scale of entire country (even small one yes) is environmentally significant.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#8All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
Filecoin is another proof of work that doesn't involve burning cpu cycles.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#9All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
If the energy comes from a source where gathering and expending it doesn't have any adverse environmental effects then it's hard to say using it is "wasteful" - the only real problem comes if you assume using more power means more coal is burned and the like. Heavy coin mining tends to be done around the cheapest energy sources like hydro, and in the interim before burning fossil fuels is fully phased out I don't thi…
Cheap energy sources like hydro are usually connected to a grid, so that electricity could be used to reduce fossil fuel demand elsewhere if it wasn’t being used for mining.
Re: We Need an Energy Miracle (2015)
#10All this cryptocurrenty craziness doesn't help either. I don't understand how the HN crowd that is usually so pro-environment, is also happy with the tons of wasted energy from crytptocurrency mining.
The whole crypto-currency scene is increasingly seeming like a huge Ponzi scheme. I really wonder at what point popular opinion will no longer support wasting electrical power on mining a digital currency.
When the music stops, and hope of striking it rich dies...people are greedy and shortsighted in the aggregate.