Negative electricity prices provoke 'miners to the rescue' brainstorm
The French have recently gone crazy due to electricity surplus – nuclear power plants generate 70% of the country's electricity, but in 2024, they will actually pay 80 million euros to get people to use electricity because they can't use it all. More bizarrely, electricity prices have dropped to negative, and they have to pay to sell electricity. Can you believe this?
On June 12, a group of legislators directly proposed: let Bitcoin miners be the 'bailout buyers'! The logic is simple – mining machines are on standby 24 hours, shutting down when the grid is under pressure, and turning on when there is excess electricity, also utilizing waste factories and recycled waste heat for heating, turning losing products into money printers.
Personal opinion: This operation has three 'really fragrant' logics
1. Miners are the 'Transformers' of the electricity market
The essence of Bitcoin mining is just two words: flexibility. Nuclear power plants generate electricity wildly during nighttime and low-demand periods, but traditional industrial electricity consumption cannot keep up. Miners can respond to dispatch in seconds, turning garbage time into computational revenue. Norway has long used surplus hydropower for this, with miners taking advantage of low electricity prices, and the grid earning stable dispatch fees – a win-win!
2. The 'politically correct' low-carbon mining
French nuclear power is considered low-carbon energy, and the mined coins come with a 'green label', directly countering the firepower of environmental organizations.
ESG funds love this kind of story; who knows, it might raise the market.
3. Economic Account: Losing 80 million euros is worse than giving it to miners
Rather than letting the grid lose money, it's better to sell at a low price to the mining sites. Texas in the U.S. has already verified: the grid offers miners flexible electricity prices, reducing price fluctuations by 30% and halving miners' costs. Isn't this business better than losing money?
Risk Warning: Ideals are full, reality is thin
Short-term feasible, long-term toxic?
Mining sites are essentially 'temporary workers for electricity'. Once the price of coins crashes or policies change, France will have to revert to losing money. Moreover, excessive reliance on miners may delay investment in energy storage technology, addressing symptoms rather than the root cause.
Geopolitical Competition: France vs. Middle Eastern Rich
The Middle East uses cheap natural gas for mining, costing less than $0.03 per kilowatt-hour. Even with low-carbon nuclear power, electricity prices in France start at $0.05. Unless the government is ruthless with subsidies, miners will vote with their feet and head to the Middle East.
Case Review: The 'High Electricity Price Deterrent' disaster in France 2018
In fact, France tried to attract miners back in 2018, but at that time, the electricity price was 1.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour (miners collectively rolled their eyes). This time, the legislators learned well, building mining sites next to nuclear power plants, eliminating transmission losses, using waste heat to warm the community, packaging the sites as 'models of circular economy'.
If the electricity price is low enough, combined with the low-carbon concept, it could really make a comeback.
Can France rewrite the European mining pattern with this trick?
If the proposal passes, Europe might spark a wave of 'surplus energy mining'; but if it fails, the 80 million euro tuition fee will hurt more than the 312 crash.
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