A recent incident in Spain, Portugal, and parts of France has sparked a debate on the importance of large-scale, fast-acting mining operations in grid stability. Daniel Batten, a key figure in the Bitcoin mining sector, argues that the power outage could have been prevented if the Iberian grid had such operations. He highlights the need for rapid load-balancing during outages, which Bitcoin miners can provide. Batten suggests that the lack of conventional inertia from thermal or nuclear plants makes grids more fragile in the absence of mining operations. While some question the certainty of this claim, Batten emphasizes the importance of considering load balancing in renewable energy transitions. He advocates for integrating Bitcoin mining into the energy toolkit to enhance grid stability and reduce costs. The incident has reignited discussions on the necessity of dispatchable backup and demand response as Europe aims to meet its renewable energy targets by 2030. Read more AI-generated news on: https://app.chaingpt.org/news