this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Green Energy

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What Will We Do With Our Free Power? (messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Title taken from the article version of this newsletter; posting the newsletter version because that has no paywall.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

There are plenty of things we could do with excess power. Green hydrogen production and electrochemical carbon fixation spring to mind.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Realistically, bros will use it to mine bitcoin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

That too :)

One day someone will build an entire Dyson Sphere... just to mine Bitcoin.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At one point hopefully it gets banned.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

No need to ban it just jail the manipulators.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

For sure. The challenge is that there's a cost of capital, and intermittently available excess power is difficult to use cost-effectively with anything like current technology.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Desalination? As an uneducated guess

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ooh, another good option!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago

The problem is that electricity will be free intermittently. This means it's going to require finding ways to use it that are not capital-intensive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago
  • non-urgent computing (AI training)
  • non-urgent transports (i.e. construction material)
  • steel, aluminum production