nuclear – bitcoin >= solar + lng

The whole thing is worth watching but pay particular attention around 13:30, where shellenberger talks about turning up the flame with lng when solar isn’t putting out enough watts, and also observes that a drawback to nuclear is that it is very hard to vary the output of a nuclear plant up or down, which is why — besides environmental concerns — solar is usually supplemented with lng cogeneration, and not nuclear.

Again, the problem with nuclear is that unlike with lng, it’s hard to “turn the flame down” when energy isn’t needed. But bitcoin actually solves this problem! (not mentioned in the video).

If you ever find yourself with too much energy on your hands, and were formerly forced to burn it as heat because there was no buyer, bitcoin miners will happily take that energy for 2 to 5c per kwh, and put it to work securing bitcoin against shenanigans.

As shellenberger says, lng cogen turns up the flame when green is putting out too little. Well, using the same metaphor, bitcoin could turn the flame DOWN when nuclear is putting out too much.

Saying plus to turn the flame up, and minus to turn the flame down, yields the equation:

nuclear – bitcoin >= solar + lng

Couple things. 1, the same logic could be applied to overprovisioned solar + batteries, as to nuclear. And bitcoin mining does indeed soak up a lot of peak solar kwh, when the sun is shining and producing more energy than nearby communities need, or batteries can store. However, the problem to solve with solar is usually lack of watts, which is why carbon emitting lng peaker plants have to be brought in for cogeneration at peak on hot days, and during hours of night. Nuclear plants don’t have this problem. They just put out energy, whether there is a buyer or not. So I presume that there are probably areas with a lot of nuclear energy that are overprovisioned, you just don’t really hear much about this as a “problem” because it is easy enough to burn electricity as heat. But nor is it much benefit to overprovision, with any energy source… until bitcoin came along that is.

And 2, I am not an expert, and I will not defend nuclear energy against accusations that environmentalists make that it is too dirty, or economists that it only works when it is subsidized with liability caps, or any of that.

I’m just… saying.