Too late...
I think he might have left it too late to make his Bitcoin millions...
Now the Bitcoin/Tether price manipulation fraud has made it to mainstream media, those bitcoins might not be able to pay for expensive solar arrays.
Here's a surprise. William Shatner wants cryptocurrency miners to use a solar energy company he represents. Solar Alliance is offering a 3MW solar array* in Murphysboro, Illinois to would-be miners. The retired Canadian actor, 87, has graciously put aside his well-documented disdain of cryptocurrencies to try and attract new …
Obviously he's left it too late because he's had too much cake.
Well, a 3MW solar array is still a potential money-maker so who cares WHO your customers are!
But then I read THIS in the article:
"Crypto mining has also wiped out gains from the vast investments made in solar and wind renewable energy in recent years."
'wiped out gains' - what the HELL does _THAT_ mean???
It's like this: If you're SELLING A PRODUCT (electricity), and MORE PEOPLE BUY IT (business is UP), you should be CELEBRATING the SUCCESS!!
What kind of SMUG, ARROGANT, HUBRISTIC attitude _IS_ this to COMPLAIN about people BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS? Oh, they're not using it the way YOU want it used? SO _FEELING_ _WHAT_ !!!
the fact remains that if you BUY ELECTRICITY, it BELONGS TO YOU. You can do with it WHATEVER _YOU_ WANT at that point. It is YOURS. You BOUGHT it. Any kind of ANTI-FREEDOM ATTITUDE that tells how WHAT TO DO with what YOU BOUGHT sounds like "Micro-shaft Electricity" to ME. You know. like WIn-10-nic except it's ELECTRICITY now, not just YOUR computer used THE WAY THEY MAKE YOU DO IT.
If you hate it when Micro-shaft jams THEIR WAY up your, er,down your throats, then why care how or how much ELECTRICITY people use? "Oh they're using too much." WHO is the one who determines THAT?
Out here in Cali-Fornicate-You, the Demo[c,n][r,R]at "super-majority" passed "yet another law to CONTROL THE PEOPLE" saying that by 2020, every person in Cali-Fornicate-You can't use more than 55 gallons of water per day per person. And that number drops to 50 gallons a few years later. *HOW* *DARE* *THEY*!!! This is not a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY here. If there is a SHORTAGE, you MAKE MORE! You *ENCOURAGE* the private sector to PRODUCE ENOUGH. (there is this ginormous water source out here on the left coast, called the PACIFIC OCEAN, and San Diego County *ALREADY* has a de-salination plant up and running - MAKE MORE and we NEVER run out!)
People forget what CONTROLS ON SUPPLY cause. There were GASOLINE LINES in the late 1970's, because the SUPPLY of gasoline was controlled by gummint. When Ronald Reagan became President, all of that STOPPED because he got RID of that nonsense! And, gasoline prices *DROPPED* as a result!
So what do we do about things like electric power and water? *MAKE* *MORE* and LET people use it HOWEVER THEY WANT, as long as they PAY for it!!! Otherwise, it's NOT FREEDOM!
Another Star Trek reference from 'Cloud William' - Freedom was a 'worship word' to his people. but they had forgotten its true meaning...
"'wiped out gains' - what the HELL does _THAT_ mean???"
It means the growth in demand for power is STILL outpacing the increase in the supply of power. To use graphing terms, Q is moving faster than P. And as you should know, if the growth in demand outstrips the ability to grow the supply of it, we're going to have shortages. IOW, despite growth in the grid, there is STILL a growing risk of a shortage, and since electricity is a staple to most people AND most people's wallets aren't getting much fatter, this can raise quality of life issues...unless you're of the soulless sort who feel there are too many people and the human race should stand a cull.
"It means the growth in demand for power is STILL outpacing the increase in the supply of power."
The fact that you needed to explain that to another humanbeing because they were too stupid to understand it themselves, is a sad state of affairs.
I propose El Reg includes some kind of captcha mechanism to weed out the unintelligent from this forum, perhaps some basic arithmetic?
It means the growth in demand for power is STILL outpacing the increase in the supply of power
Then I propose we stop wasting the time, and energy on Blue Sky Ideas such as Windwills, and Solar, and get back to what actually works? You know the production of Nuclear Electricity.
I know right its like the Author is making it out like these Miners are just outright stealing the Electrity, instead of being handed off a Bill every Month, and or Year. Who gives a toss about how much these Cats burn up on their hobby? As they will eventually have to cough it up to their Provider(s).
Perhaps insted of building more, and more bird killing eyesores (e.g. Windmills), we could perhaps just do up One, or Two Nuclear Pants instead?
> This year, Iceland, the world's leading geothermal user, doubled its geothermal output to 100MW
Something is wrong with this. A small grid scale power plant is about 100 MW. New Zealand has more than 800MW operational generating capacity. Iceland has 665MW according totheir national authority. So I'm not sure that Iceland is the leader or that they're doubled output...
Beer because it's Friday.
"Something is wrong with this. A small grid scale power plant is about 100 MW."
Using traditional means like hydrocarbons. To produce comparable power, continuously, from renewables requires significant land allocation. For example, the Desert Sunlight solar-thermal plant in California (550MWAC) spans 3,800 acres (>15km^2).
I listened to it.
Not only shall I never forgive you but I shall establish a charity organisation funded by the return on the investments made with the funds from my liquidated estate upon my death, that will employ someone to hate you on my behalf for as long as the human race exists.
Shatner's business acumen would appear to be about on par with his acting and authoring abilities.
He's getting paid to promote this, so whether the company succeeds or fails, he is already ahead. If he cut a similar deal to what he did with Priceline.com, where he cleared a reported US$600 million, I would say that he is a far better business person than you give him credit for.
Mine is the one with a flask of Romulan ale in the pocket.
I don't think he's a terrible actor. Star Trek didn't always give him great opportunities, did it, considering the intermiitently abysmal scripts. That fight with the Gorn was never going to give Shakespeare a run for his money. Some of the better scripts gave him a chance to strut his stuff well enough: City at the Edge of Forever, perhaps; and the second movie of the series, Wrath of Khan.
And we shan't say much about singing or writing.
IMHO, his most spectacular skill, always overlooked, was horsemanship. You didn't see much of that in ST ....
Shatner actually could act, and act quite well, back in the day. He was a Shakespeare actor at Stratford and on Broadway in the '50s. Kirk was written that way. Roddenberry wanted a Horatio Hornblower sort of character. Check out his lesser-known Twilight Zone performance "Nick of Time."
As to bitcoin mining and energy usage...well...if only we could come-up with a reliable formula that would allow us to mix matter and antimatter, cold.... (Frankly, I'd settle for them getting a safely and reliably working nuclear fusion plant.)
So they're doubling their output to 100MW. That's nice. But also actually wrong.
100MW is the capacity of just ONE of Iceland's geothermal stations with the overall total capacity somewhere closer to 705MW
Let us know when they get close to New Zealand's 854MW.
Doesn't sound like much, really. I mean, when it got really hot in New York a few years back, they ended up needing over 13GW...by itself. And then you have places like Hawaii that are completely isolated from the rest of the world, have high energy needs (they're in the tropics, a double-whammy of heat and humidity) and little room to put a generator. Oh, and a constant risk of typhoons which makes building anything that can last there tricky.