A question on the New York emissions assessment- looks like the nuclear plant decommissioning may be the primary reason for increase in emissions. Maybe I misunderstood your point but that seems like direct correlation and emissions will be accordingly attributed to current loads.
During one breakout session, I found it interesting that bitcoin mining companies in the search for more sustainable power enable mechanisms for greening the infrastructure in Africa. Also, the article touches on carbon aware computing and how mining takes advantage of that.
I am not an advocate of bitcoin mining but thought these were interesting points to discuss.
I think you’re describing the challenge pretty well: attributional vs. consequential or average vs. marginal emissions. But if we step back, it seems that we should focus on approaches which serve to reduce emissions rather than increase them—full stop. When you look at the problem through that lens the value of the consequential or marginal approach makes more sense than any other. Clearly, it’s not perfect but the point should be that adding renewables to the highest emitting grids will have the greatest impact and that is worth doing. It’s not about hourly or monthly or annual accounting: to paraphrase James Carville, it’s the carbon, stupid!
Fred, I totally agree with you. The problem is that higher marginal emissions are associated with more renewables (due to intermittency). If I have a gas peaker plant sitting on top of a coal-based grid and a gas peaker plant sitting on top of a renewables based grid, the marginal will likely be higher on the renewables based grid. What you really want to account for is the totality of the energy production, not just what's on the margin.
A question on the New York emissions assessment- looks like the nuclear plant decommissioning may be the primary reason for increase in emissions. Maybe I misunderstood your point but that seems like direct correlation and emissions will be accordingly attributed to current loads.
Also - there was a roundtable conducted by Intel with Linux foundation on Blockchain. you may find the summary interesting. https://project.linuxfoundation.org/hubfs/LF%20Research/Intel%20Web3%20and%20Sustainability%20-%20Report.pdf?hsLang=en
During one breakout session, I found it interesting that bitcoin mining companies in the search for more sustainable power enable mechanisms for greening the infrastructure in Africa. Also, the article touches on carbon aware computing and how mining takes advantage of that.
I am not an advocate of bitcoin mining but thought these were interesting points to discuss.
I think you’re describing the challenge pretty well: attributional vs. consequential or average vs. marginal emissions. But if we step back, it seems that we should focus on approaches which serve to reduce emissions rather than increase them—full stop. When you look at the problem through that lens the value of the consequential or marginal approach makes more sense than any other. Clearly, it’s not perfect but the point should be that adding renewables to the highest emitting grids will have the greatest impact and that is worth doing. It’s not about hourly or monthly or annual accounting: to paraphrase James Carville, it’s the carbon, stupid!
Fred, I totally agree with you. The problem is that higher marginal emissions are associated with more renewables (due to intermittency). If I have a gas peaker plant sitting on top of a coal-based grid and a gas peaker plant sitting on top of a renewables based grid, the marginal will likely be higher on the renewables based grid. What you really want to account for is the totality of the energy production, not just what's on the margin.