Re: Biden proposed 30% mining tax. what would impact on Bitcoin mining?
⭐ Merited by icopress (1)
And thanks to Al Gore and his financial cronies, said coal power plant no doubt purchases carbon credits so on paper they are 'low CO2 omissions'. 
That particular setup is also an outlier. Mines are setup where there is:
a. Abundant low cost power.
b. Friendly local governments.
Regarding 'a', the massive amounts of power the largest farms use is there because there is not enough local loads to run the power plants at maximum efficiency and it cannot be economically be sent across 'the grid(s)' to be used elsewhere. The mines that were once located in the Pacific Northwest existed because of the large hydroelectric damns built to power several massive aluminum refining plants all mostly owned by Alcoa. When those plants were shut down during the 90's & early 2k's the utilities needed a huge 'local' load to justify operations. When miners and data farms moved in everyone was happy. Finally around 2013 Canada established a high-tension link between the Northwest and their grid to buy power from the dams. That more than anything is what drove PUC to all but shut down large mining farms... In that case 'b' was not present.
These days the same supply/demand economics apply. Yes Texas has massive wind farms and guess what - they produce far more power than is usually need to feed the all but isolated Texas power grid ran by ERCOT. Now in their case the overcapacity was purposely built to accommodate local weather conditions and the amount of power produced & needed in the local areas. When there are poor winds in one area odds are they are good in enough other areas to cover it. That said, the end result is usually far more power than Texas can use.
Enter mining farms. Most folks have at least heard of the deals that ERCOT and the mega farms have: The farms get to soak up the excess power at reasonable rates but with 1 caveat - whenever circumstances require it (most often weather) the farms have to throttle back their power usage and even stop running entirely until things change. So much for 'the power usage harming other users'... Yes ERCOT pays the farms a stipend for not running but it is a fraction of what the mines would earn if running. Still, given how easy it is to switch a mine on & off, not a bad deal.
That particular setup is also an outlier. Mines are setup where there is:
a. Abundant low cost power.
b. Friendly local governments.
Regarding 'a', the massive amounts of power the largest farms use is there because there is not enough local loads to run the power plants at maximum efficiency and it cannot be economically be sent across 'the grid(s)' to be used elsewhere. The mines that were once located in the Pacific Northwest existed because of the large hydroelectric damns built to power several massive aluminum refining plants all mostly owned by Alcoa. When those plants were shut down during the 90's & early 2k's the utilities needed a huge 'local' load to justify operations. When miners and data farms moved in everyone was happy. Finally around 2013 Canada established a high-tension link between the Northwest and their grid to buy power from the dams. That more than anything is what drove PUC to all but shut down large mining farms... In that case 'b' was not present.
These days the same supply/demand economics apply. Yes Texas has massive wind farms and guess what - they produce far more power than is usually need to feed the all but isolated Texas power grid ran by ERCOT. Now in their case the overcapacity was purposely built to accommodate local weather conditions and the amount of power produced & needed in the local areas. When there are poor winds in one area odds are they are good in enough other areas to cover it. That said, the end result is usually far more power than Texas can use.
Enter mining farms. Most folks have at least heard of the deals that ERCOT and the mega farms have: The farms get to soak up the excess power at reasonable rates but with 1 caveat - whenever circumstances require it (most often weather) the farms have to throttle back their power usage and even stop running entirely until things change. So much for 'the power usage harming other users'... Yes ERCOT pays the farms a stipend for not running but it is a fraction of what the mines would earn if running. Still, given how easy it is to switch a mine on & off, not a bad deal.