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It's Time to Build a New Grid 🏴‍☠️🌞🔋www.hivemind.vc/grid

12.1k sats \ 10k boost \ 10 comments \ @MaxAWebster 11 Sep ideasfromtheedge

The old grid is sclerotic. It's time to build anew.

In this essay, I outline a vision for TW scale solar macrogrids that can handle the coming demand for compute & the electrification of everything.

We're convening a group of solar pirates at Presidio Bitcoin to make this vision a reality. If these crazy ideas resonate with you, please apply to join us.

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88 sats \ 0 replies \ @MaxAWebster OP 11 Sep

shoutout to one of my favorite sn posts of all time from @mallardshead: #281307

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @BlokchainB 11 Sep

Solar + storage has crossed the tipping point as the cheapest source of electricity. And it's only getting cheaper.

I’m going to have to disagree on this statement. It reads well on a website but in practice solar is no where near close just from a pure efficiency standpoint of being able to compete with dense hydrocarbons for power.

123 sats \ 0 replies \ @OT 12 Sep

I thought solar has come a long way, but batteries still have a long way to go in both cost and efficiency.

209 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 11 Sep

Seen some shit in my time working at big utility, unfortunately I can only help list problems. Lots of perceived problems are really just symptoms of even deeper problems.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 12h

Do you have any concrete numbers to back up this statement?

"Nuclear is a promising long term piece of the puzzle [but] that’s to say nothing of my skepticism of it competing on price."

I'm not a expert in energy production, but given the difference in energy density of production between solar and nuclear, with nuclear being much higher. I would be much less skeptical of this idea if there was at least some ballpark numbers to show how solar is superior to nuclear or other forms of energy.

Doomberg recently has a post covering solar and it's costs and challenges that seems relevant to your idea: https://newsletter.doomberg.com/p/fessing-up?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

I'm not a hater, and am genuinely curious about the possibility of this being feasible. I also really enjoy your thoughts on the PBJ podcast, thanks for all the insightful content every week.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 11h

my understanding re: cost of nuclear is that general consensus is that even if you factor in the energy density, the cost per unit of energy is still higher, but a large part of that has to do with how expensive it has to build a reactor, which includes dealing with all sorts of red tape, insurance, etc.

i could be speaking outta by butt, but that's the sense i got talking with an engineering friend of mine, and a friend whose brother works as a nuclear inspector

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 15h

I’ve followed the cost of solar carefully for over a decade and observed a Moore’s law like relationship - every doubling in cumulative capacity deployed has decreased the LCOE (levelized cost of electricity) by ~30-40%. Just like clockwork.

Lithium-ion batteries have a similar deployment > cost relationship with a slightly less steep curve: every doubling of cumulative capacity leads to a 20-25% reduction in the end cost of electricity storage.

Those numbers are incredible.

I haven't matured into a solar bull mostly because the end-to-end costs, environmental and otherwise, especially wrt to storage, are not as obvious. Without getting a firm grip on that stuff, it's always felt more responsible to approach energy with conservatism.

Has anyone written a good impartial analysis on end-to-end costs of solar?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 12 Sep

Hey @MaxAWebster, fyi, your receiving wallet is timing out

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @2053456d48 12 Sep

Green energy and solar farming are the more efficient grid to invest in for the sustainability development goals.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @brave 12 Sep

The legacy grid is holding us back from the AI and EV boom. Your TW scale solar macrogrids vision is the bold reset we need decentralized, resilient, and future-proof.