And no, renewable energy isn't generally the cheapest, coal is. (Until you factor in the health care and funeral service costs.)
Bitcoin is just China's way of exporting coal through the atmosphere.
It may be the case that coal is cheaper if you ignore the capital cost of the plant (e.g. running an old plant beyond its design life) but including capital costs amortised over the lifetime of the plant coal is not even cheaper than natural gas.
My understanding is that a major source of electricity used for bitcoin mining in China was hydro power during the wet season (when there is a natural power surplus because the level in the dam must be reduced)
The reason it's the cheapest is that you're negotiating with somebody who is desperate and has no options left. They have to sell the energy to you for bitcoin production because there's literally nowhere else they can turn.
The more green energy proliferates and climate change action expands, the more of these plants will be reduced to this desperation. The worst energy production is the cheapest, so long as it's been outlawed and the plant has no other options.
The cheapest energy is the cheapest. It has nothing directly to do with it being renewable.
x = x
As if that's insightful. But in the spirit of HN, can you say more? My understanding is that renewables are the cheapest and will likely continue to trend in that direction, causation or not. So are you suggesting maybe there's a chance of a super inexpensive non-renewable overtaking this trend?
I broke this chain of logic by pointing out that renewable is an unnecessary consideration and that mining activities will choose the cheapest option regardless of its renewability.
Furthermore I claim that renewable is not the cheapest. Various subsidies aside, renewable is often many times more expensive to deliver where and when required. The total system cost is many times higher.
Or we could just have a surplus of green energy for everything else we need. And how can we even have a surplus of green energy when we're probably at a 90% of world energy production deficit?
It's like claiming that if I steal a percentage of your paycheck for a few years and until the government stops me, leaving you with more disposable income than when I was stealing it, I've actually helped you by encouraging you to work really hard.
