[fafner]

Imagine a future where whenever the energy price drops in a region suddenly companies show up with a bunch of such tubes drop them in the ocean. Do some batch processing and once the energy price rises they pull it out and move on.

In reality of course connectivity would be a major problem and energy price differences are probably not large enough to make it viable.

[cbcoutinho]

Although it doesn't have anything to do with computational load, hydroelectric storage exploits the change in electricity price to store energy in hydroelectric systems. At low demand they pump water into the reservoir, and at peak demand they release it again through turbines, generate electricity, and sell it at the higher price.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...

[rdl]

Powering down some facilities during temporary spikes would make sense (someday if hardware is cheap enough, operating only for peak solar generation/minimum local demand could make sense). Being able to relocate due to cost/legal/etc. over a few month period could make sense, or the special tax and planning/regulatory treatment a "ship" would get vs. a building on land.