By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights
(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — Bitcoin’s price plunge could lead to the greater production of renewable energy.
This is anything but obvious, so follow along. The price plunge will force many previously profitable crypto mining operations either to find cheaper sources of energy — or shut down. Yet, just as this need for cheaper energy is growing, conventional sources of electricity are becoming more expensive.
Renewable energy is the obvious alternative. The marginal cost of energy produced by solar, wind or hydro power is extremely low.
To be sure, few imagine that crypto mining is good for the climate, even when powered by renewable energy. But it’s possible that crypto mining can turn otherwise marginal solar, wind and hydro projects into solidly profitable operations, thus catalyzing the creation of more such projects than otherwise would have been the case.
This isn’t just a theoretical possibility, as I’ll discuss in a minute. . . .
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