Ben Hertz-Shargel of Wood Mackenzie explains marginal emissions modeling in wholesale electricity markets and cites WattTime's empirical findings regarding Bitcoin mining's impact on grid dispatch.
Assertion Supported
Hertz-Shargel: Bitcoin mining raises Texas power bills by $1.8B annually
“So collectively, it's 1.8 billion conservatively per year. And that's sort of a run rate, I would say. And that represents around a five percent increase in costs of Texans, of, you know non-Bitcoin mining consumers. And that, that's across all the different s…”
Insight
Hertz-Shargel: Siting Bitcoin mines beside existing renewables merely displaces clean power
“The reality is that The total number, the total amount of load on the system has grown, and therefore all you've done is displaced other customers who would be served by that renewable generation. So it's, and so your number of pigeons has grown, and so you kn…”
Assertion Supported
Hertz-Shargel: Many Bitcoin miners run even at $4,000/MWh power prices
“Some miners do have a price threshold which empirically is between 103 hundred dollars per megawatt hour but many have basically no threshold, and they will continue running up even into the thousands, up to 4000 dollars per per megawatt hour.”
Insight
Hertz-Shargel: Grid power resale by Bitcoin miners creates no public good
“But really, the way to view this is, this was a generation that was sitting there that they were otherwise consuming. They are just refraining from consuming it at these, during these periods. So you can't credit them for, Again, for a good, you can only credi…”
Assertion Supported
Hertz-Shargel: Major Bitcoin mines are not signing offtake PPAs with new renewables
“So they are not signing new PPAs with new wind to as off takers to kind of make these plans happen. They're signing PPAs with retailers and utilities mostly conventional types of deals, such as being put on base interruptible rates. So, you know, it provides d…”
Assertion Supported
Hertz-Shargel: Bitcoin Miners Restart Defunct NY Fossil Plants
“They also chase defunct oil and gas plants because those can be sort of rehydrated and turned on and used directly for mining. And so that has happened a lot, especially in New York, these sort of mothballed plants that are able to be turned on and run Pretty …”