On The Brink with Castle Island

Blake King, power markets engineer at Galaxy, formerly of Oak Ridge national lab and ERCOT, joins us to talk about how changing grids are accommodating an influx of load from Bitcoin miners. In this episode:  Why the grid is undergoing a radical transformation today Blake’s background in electrical engineering, power system modeling, and renewable development The origin of Blake’s papers on bitcoin mining and the grid Bitcoiner misconceptions about mining? Why Bitcoin is not a battery Why you can’t just arbitrarily add load to the grid Why Bitcoin mining does not generally increase energy prices during scarcity or peak load Why rational actors curtail or sell power during scarcity events Are grid planning models correctly estimating the risk of furloughing thermal generation? Is it possible to make the green energy transition as currently envisioned? Why renewable generation requires more transmission How renewable generation costs are increasingly upfront as compared to thermal generation Are bitcoiners ove