Harnessing Cryptocurrency Miners to Fight Climate Change

by 75ce8d3ff802ff42

One of (if not the) biggest obstacles facing the widespread adoption of renewable energy (wind and solar) is the lack of a way of efficiently storing electrical energy at scale.

We can store small amounts in battery packs, but large-scale storage is still a trillion-dollar problem.  This leaves electrical grids with several unattractive options:

1. Overbuild so much wind and solar farms that there's still power available even on calm nights.
• Extremely expensive and wasteful 99 percent of the time.
2. Build expensive and inefficient energy storage facilities.
3. Supplement wind and solar energy with fossil fuel energy when necessary.
• Often less green than 100 percent fossil fuel systems because on-demand fossil fuel generators are less efficient than always-on generators.

I would like to propose, as a thought experiment, a way to harness the money behind cryptocurrency mining operations to expand green energy production.

Yes, I know that I just proposed cryptocurrencies as a solution to a serious problem, but please hear me out on this.

My proposal: Designate 90 percent of surplus green energy produced at any given moment to a pool that is distributed to cryptocurrency mining operations in proportion to how much of the grid's production capabilities each operation has contributed. Contributions to the grid can be in the form of wind and solar farms or cash payments for the grid to spend on building/expanding wind and solar farms.  As an added measure, consider adding an additional tax on all cryptocurrency mining operations that rely on fossil fuels for electrical energy.

Such a setup would give every mining operation an incentive to assist in building out the grid's wind and solar capabilities; an operator could invest in the grid and reap the rewards of effectively free power indefinitely (a small fee for maintenance may be required long-term).  Some operators may choose to run their own wind and solar farms, but buying into the grid's system gives operators two advantages:

1. Geographic diversity provides more reliable power.
• It may be calm where your operation is situated, but the odds are that it's windy somewhere on the grid's footprint.
2. The option to simply pay the grid to expand wind and solar production saves mining operators the trouble of building actual wind and solar farms.
• Just "let the professionals do it."
• This also has the benefit of allowing for smaller mining operations that don't have the large capital required for building wind and solar farms.

In my humble opinion, the jury is still out on whether cryptocurrencies are a net good or ill for humanity.

Hopefully, a setup that encourages miners to contribute to green energy production would move the dial towards "good."