On The Brink with Castle Island

Ray Cline and Shaun Connell (Lancium) on Stabilizing the Grid with Bitcoin Mining (EP.254)

Oct 25, 2021

01:34:01

Creator website

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Importance of Demand Responses in Power Generation

03:42

Controllable Load Resource - Primary Frequency Response

01:56

Is There a Subsidy in the Grid?

01:57

Introduction

2min

The Biquin Miners Are a Unique Load Resource on the Grid

2min

Bigcoin Mining

5min

Bitcoin Mining

1min

The Complexity of Energy Bills

3min

The Impacts of Renewable Energy in Texas

5min

Is There a New Customer on the Block?

2min

Is There a Growth in Renewables?

2min

Is There a Subsidy in the Grid?

2min

10.

Taking Advantage of Renewables in Mining

2min

11.

Transmission Services - The Heartbeat of the GRD

6min

12.

The Lower Opportunity Costs of Turning Off

2min

13.

Miners Are Turning Over Every 18 Months

2min

14.

How to Get a Megawati Capacity of 700 Miners

2min

15.

What Is Grid Firming?

2min

16.

Why Would a Wind Farm Want to Do This?

6min

17.

Is There a Growing Awareness on the Energy Producer Side?

2min

18.

Getting Started Investing in Cryptocurrency

6min

19.

The Cap X Per Megwat Is Zero, Right?

3min

20.

The Existence of Bicoin Could Actually Induce This Kind of Anticipatory Building of Energy Assets That Aren't Even Connected to Transmission Lines

2min

21.

A Grid Operator's Controllable Load Resource

5min

22.

Controllable Load Resource - Primary Frequency Response

2min

23.

Is There a Limitation on Demand Response?

5min

24.

The Importance of Demand Responses in Power Generation

4min

25.

The Economics of Bicoin Mining

5min

26.

The Economics of the Controllable Load Resource

3min

27.

Bicoin Mining

3min

28.

Is There a Process of Learning for Other Grid Operators?

4min

29.

Is Texas Adding Wind and Solar to the Grid?

5min

Ray Cline, Lancium CTO, and Shaun Connell, EVP Power at Lancium, join the show. We cover the changing Texas grid, several models for renewable based mining, and how miners can serve as a controllable load. In this episode:

Personal backgrounds and crossing the threshold from energy to Bitcoin
Origins of Lancium
Features of Texas grid
Why Texas is so suitable for renewables
How Texas is the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of renewable generation
Why renewables grew so fast in Texas
Two reasons why prices reach negative prices
Three models for mining
- Grid connected with new gen miners
- Renewable colocation with new gen miners
- Off grid renewable colocation with old gen miners
How different ASIC vintages affect the power price you can tolerate for the units and what interruptibility they can deal with
ERCOT’s surplus renewable power
How the Texas grid is splitting in half
How Bitcoin is a ‘premium customer’ for energy assets
Why miners depreciate their miners over 4-5 years, and not 1-2 years as Digiconomist claims
Are energy producers aware of the importance of Bitcoin mining as an alternative energy buyer?
Introduction to Demand Response
What a Controllable Load Resource is and how Bitcoin miners uniquely satisfy the requirements
History of Controllable Load in ERCOT
Why controllable load is so useful to grid operators
Why Bitcoin miners can be flexible load, and why other industrial consumers of energy cannot
Why the economics of operating an interruptible load as a miner make sense
Are other grid operators looking to build programs for BTC miners?
Do Bitcoin miners decarbonize the Texas grid in the final analysis?
Will Bitcoin mining improve the reliability of the grid?

Sponsor notes:

This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.
This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto.

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts

Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.

No 1 podcast app

Steven

App Store

I tried everything and snipd is the no 1 app for podcasts if you like to remember things. Just tap your headphones three times and a snipped is created, transcribed, and saved to you library.

The game changer for learning from podcasts!

Nelson

App Store

I used to use a different app that was able to save excerpts from podcast and really enjoyed it. I could listen to the podcast and quickly save things that I wanted to come back to later. Snipd take this to a whole new level with AI integration, creating summaries of podcasts and summarizing the main takeaways from what I’ve saved and snipped. I really love how it helps me prioritize what podcast to listen to with it summaries & deep dives.