back to article Shatner's solar-powered Bitcoin gambit wouldn't power a deflector shield

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 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    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.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Too late...

      Obviously he's left it too late because he's had too much cake.

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        Re: Too late...

        Obviously he's left it too late because he's had too much cake.

        A free bassoon offered to every customer who signs up?

      2. GIRZiM
        Happy

        Re: too much cake

        I was going to mention Shatner's Bassoon (ooer), if nobody else did.

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: Too late...

      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...

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Too late...

        "'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.

        1. FlamingDeath Silver badge

          Re: Too late...

          "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?

        2. Michael Habel

          Re: Too late...

          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.

      2. getHandle

        Re: Too late...

        And breathe..! :-)

      3. GIRZiM

        Re: Too late...

        Oh, God, my EYES!!!

      4. Horridbloke

        Re: Too late...

        I've had my suspicions for a while now. Admit it Bob: you're William Shatner aren't you?

      5. Michael Habel

        Re: Too late...

        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?

      6. gotes

        Re: Too late...

        Wow, I can almost smell the smoke coming off bob's keyboard.

      7. PM from Hell

        Re: Too late...

        I say old boy, have you forgotten to take your dried frog pills again?

  2. StuntMisanthrope

    Small Change is the essential process of all existence...

    Could be a trap, Captain. They may be attempting to create a warp-field!? #warpbubble #alphamemory

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A more generous alternative.... reading....of....the....situation would be that 24/7 cryptomining is creating a market for renewables as it is working .... to .... reduce ..... the difference in consumption between peak and non-peak ............ consumption.

    1. Kane
      Joke

      @disgustedoftunbridgewells

      You really....struggled....to get that sentence out, didn't you?

      1. Alistair
        Joke

        Re: @disgustedoftunbridgewells

        @Kane:

        I think DoTW pulled off a shatnering presentation myself.

      2. FBee

        Re: @disgustedoftunbridgewells

        Looks like...a few downvoters...don't...appreciate...Kirk's speech pattern.

  4. Adrian Harvey
    Pint

    > 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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Percentage?

      For percentage pop/user to generation?

      1. Boothy

        Re: Percentage?

        Hellisheiði Power Station produces 303MW on it's own (the biggest geothermal station in the world).

        Another 5 plants produce 401.5MW, so 704.5MW in total for Iceland as far as I can see.

    2. Charles 9

      "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).

  5. Rafael #872397
    Trollface

    ...has graciously put aside his well-documented disdain of cryptocurrencies...

    So, either "promote us or we cut your salary" or "we will pay more to do that"?

    Picard would never do this!

    (run for cover)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ...has graciously put aside his well-documented disdain of cryptocurrencies...

      Picard would use the land for Grapes

  6. Tromos

    Shatner's business acumen would appear to be about on par with his acting and authoring abilities.

    1. A K Stiles
      Coat

      How about the singing?

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        How about the singing?

        Everybody should listen to Shatner's cover version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds once(*) in their life.

        (*) And no more.

        1. FBee

          On the other hand, his cover of "Common People" (with help from Ben Folds) is essential listening.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            While Ben Folds was a producer and arranger on the wonderful album, I should point out that Joe Jackson was the artist who performed the actual song with Shatner, a song i still listen to regularly!

        2. GIRZiM

          Re: Shatner's cover version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

          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.

    2. Robert Helpmann??
      Coat

      Kobayashi Maru Much?

      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.

    3. Milton

      Shatner's skills

      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 ....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Shatner's skills

        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.)

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right, so

    I only need to mine for a few hours per day when there's sufficient sunlight?

  8. Cubical Drone

    "To put 3MW in perspective, that's roughly the yield of the rooftop array on BMW Mini plant in Oxford."

    Is this a new addition to the Reg standards. I will admit something for amounts of electricity is needed.

  9. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge
    Coat

    Or is it a Corbomite manoeuver in disguise?

    Because of Corbomite, it'll sell like hot cakes on the market.

  10. Paul Herber Silver badge

    I forsee tribble at t'mill.

    1. Chozo
      Coffee/keyboard

      You've waited years to use that line haven't you?

    2. John G Imrie

      I forsee tribble at t'mill.

      Well I didn't expect some kind of Romulan Inquisition.

      1. Colabroad

        Re: I forsee tribble at t'mill.

        Sometimes you need to Klingon to a joke for a while before the opportunity presents itself

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Do the ends justifies the means?

    Funny no one complaining on the waste of energy in the creation of VaporFunds™.

  12. Graham Cunningham

    Units

    Is the Reg Units dept. asleep at the wheel?

    We demand appropriate units!

    SW - Switzerwatts?

  13. Chronos

    I predict...

    This will be more tribble than it's worth.

    "And two: Somebody close that hatch!"

  14. DavCrav

    "Geothermal is a highly promising renewable source – it runs 24 hours a day and isn't impaired by bird poo. "

    I guess it depends on how much bird poo there is, and exactly where it ends up.

    1. Charles 9

      The catch is that there are few locations where you can harness enough geothermal energy to generate electricity. Iceland is lucky they pretty much sit on top of a volcano.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        "Iceland is lucky they pretty much sit on top of a volcano."

        For certain values of "luck" ;-)

        Is there much effort at generating thermal power around Pompei or anywhere in Hawaii?

  15. TheProf
    Facepalm

    Ah!

    "To put 3MW in perspective, that's roughly the yield of the rooftop array on BMW Mini plant in Oxford."

    I love it when someone explains something abstract in an easy to understand manner.

  16. FlamingDeath Silver badge
  17. Deltics
    Coat

    World leading Geothermal nation ... Iceland ?

    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.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: World leading Geothermal nation ... Iceland ?

      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.

      1. Anonymous Cow Herder

        Re: World leading Geothermal nation ... Iceland ?

        Not to mention the 1.21GW required to power a DeLorean.

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