> We can use storage systems to smooth out supply/demand of electricity.
They have a max capacity. They cannot be steady consumers of electricity for the 95%+ of the time that there is enough electricity to go around.
> Mining is unsufficient, because it can't provide energy in the night when the sun is not shining. Storage systems can
I can use the same argument: Storage systems are insufficient, because they can't consume most of the excess generated power to make development of more renewables economically viable. Bitcoin miners can.
It would be much more useful to pour excess power into green hydrogen production.
There are industrial and chemical processes where electricity is not a viable replacement for the CO2 intensive approaches we are using now. Building up a hydrogen economy for those applications would be great. And much more useful than that cryptocurrency bullshit.
To put it in context: you could power all of Argentina with the power bitcoin wastes. Big enough for you? Or Nigeria five times over (that's 200 million people times five).
They have a max capacity. They cannot be steady consumers of electricity for the 95%+ of the time that there is enough electricity to go around.
> Mining is unsufficient, because it can't provide energy in the night when the sun is not shining. Storage systems can
I can use the same argument: Storage systems are insufficient, because they can't consume most of the excess generated power to make development of more renewables economically viable. Bitcoin miners can.