[kragen]

the distance factor is a primary consideration when it comes to electricity; most electricity is consumed within hundreds of kilometers from where it's produced, because only in china is there uhvdc transmission, and even inside china there isn't nearly enough uhvdc and hvdc transmission capacity to meet demand

consequently, there are lots of places where there's abundant green electricity that can't be economically transported to any neighbors, which is why green electricity is cheaper than coal, nuclear, and gas energy. if it could be economically transported, it would be; instead, it is sold locally at much lower prices. only rarely is this seen by residential end-users, but in much of the world the 15-minute prices paid on the wholesale market by electric utilities are public information, so you can easily verify this

as a result of that, just using renewable sources for electricity does actually make mining renewable

as for the grauniad article, there are a lot of people doing unprofitable business things in lots of businesses, but they tend to be self-limiting, because those people run out of money before long

[kragen]

correction, since 02017, there's also uhvdc transmission in brazil from the belo monte dam. 66% of electrical generation in brazil is hydroelectric

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu-Estreito_HVDC_transmissi...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingu-Rio_HVDC_transmission_li...