A Crypto/Alternative Energy Synergy?

I’m no fan of crypto-currencies, thinking them mostly speculative hype backed up by interesting by fundamentally nonsensical technology. But there’s certainly a bunch of money in it for some people (disclaimer: not me), and so I understand the interest in it.

I’m similarly bearish about alternative energy — specifically, wind and solar — thinking it generally a boutique power option suitable for a few off-grid or small-scale applications, but otherwise an infrastructure disaster in the making, and a wildly impractical alternative to good old fossil fuels (of which I remain a huge and enthusiastic fan).

But here’s something that occurred to me today. One of the reasons wind and solar power are ecological losers is the nature of the conventional backup power required to make wind and solar even approximately viable. Because wind and solar are highly variable and prone to sudden drops in output, grids that feature a lot of renewables need a lot of standby power that can be “spun up” quickly to make up for shortfalls.

Most of our power comes from what’s known as “baseload” power sources. These are coal, gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric power plants that produce a steady supply of electricity relatively efficiently. Unfortunately, none of these “spin up” quickly: they don’t react quickly to the rapidly varying supply shortages created by unreliable alternative energy.

So when alternative energy falls short, the deficit is usually made up by what’s called a “simple-cycle” gas turbine power plant. Simple-cycle plants have the virtue of being able to increase output very quickly, but the downside of consuming considerably more fossil fuel than the more sophisticated “combined-cycle” gas power plants that provide much of our baseload power. Combined-cycle plants are more efficient because they capture more of the heat produced by the combustion of fossil fuels, heat that the simple-cycle plants just release into the environment.

That’s why grid-scale alternative energy is often a net negative in terms of environmental impact, making things worse than they would be if we simply used conventional baseload power. And that’s why our President is a mendacious idiot for spouting nonsense about American electricity production being “carbon-free” by the time I’m 75.

Anyway, what occurred to me today is that, if we’re going to continue doing something as boneheaded as adding solar and wind to the nation’s electrical grids, maybe some enterprising utility should add conventional baseload backup power, and then, when that baseload power isn’t needed, divert it to crypto-currency mining. That would be less environmentally destructive than installing a lot of simple-cycle power, and might actually offset utility costs.

I still think it’s all kind of crazy. But, if I owned a power plant, I think that’s how I’d do it.

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