Just a little food for thought. If my province were to hit the emissions and EV targets of our federal government by 2035, during this latest cold snap, our two biggest cities would have needed 2x the electricity we are currently generating. Province wide, we received emergency notifications to not use our stoves, unplug our cars, and minimize our electricity use. Stick that in your pipes and smoke it.
Discussion
Yep, the whole name of the game with renewables is overbuilding capacity (capital destruction) to be able to have sufficient capacity in times of need.
This leads to the near constant curtailment of renewables in many jurisdictions and is why many bitcoin miners are currently finding solid PPAs on renewable assets, but it is not because these are “good assets” to mine bitcoin with. It is because they are a terrible allocation of capital in desperate need of a solution.
Renewable investments were wasteful capital allocations made due to perverted diligence processes. Bitcoin is positioned to benefit from fiat mistakes.
Make no mistake, in most jurisdictions, “renewable” projects will not be built on a bitcoin standard. Oil and gas primarily … eventually transitioning to nuclear.
I couldn't agree more.
There are those which believe that miners would encourage renewable projects, because they can just turn off during peak demand. As you said, they are finding solid PPAs on projects that already exist. Do you think this pattern will continue, as governments everywhere seem hellbent on misallocating capital to fund these renewable projects?
At this point, it’s one of the last remaining ways for governments to encourage “manufacturing” “growth” in geographic areas that otherwise wouldn’t have free market economic activity with the current conditions. As long as governments are able to create money, they will continue to funnel it towards these “green” projects because the perception of “jobs” and “opportunity”. People will (hopefully) get smarter … things will continue to get more expensive and it will be harder for the government to deny their role in inflation.
Not only that but electrification is making the population more dependent on the grid…think Sovereign Individual.
The real disturbing technology governments are preparing is the direct air capture systems. Literally pushing money into a community to “clean” CO2 out of the air. But relatively small and they can deployed anywhere and everywhere - assuming there is enough construction capital and operating capital provided.
Talk about money laundering…that’s a special kind of money laundering. A bitcoin standard - the return to sound money - will fix that.