Apologies – the recent period of inactivity is caused by a period for me – of what the Americans would call ‘off grid’. For those that follow, the unfortunate details are that my mother, a widow, died at the respectably young age of 102¾… Having informed British Gas, they told me to do nothing (by... Read more
Energy
A lot has already been written about different aspects of why most distributed blockchain-based consensus systems are just… bad. And yet we are still able to find new such reasons. At least I think this is a new one. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere so far.
Distributed blockchain-based consensus systems, as they are currently implemented, are an energy-waste ratchet.
I am specifically talking about systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and any other system that:
Price inflation, marginal cost pricing, and principles for electricity market redesign in an era of low-carbon transition
Economies across Europe face unprecedented challenges arising from the soaring cost of energy which holds the prospect of turning into major social and political crises. In the UK, without any intervention, total household consumer expenditure on energy is set to rise from £64bn in 2021 to around £200bn – an increase exceeding defense and education expenditures combined. The rise is dominated by expenditure on electricity and gas, split (on average) roughly equally between the two. Energy costs are a prime factor driving general inflation in the UK to at least 10%, whilst poor households face cost-of-living increases of almost 20%.
Moving away from fossil fuels, towards a system with a far greater contribution from variable renewables, means that the current system is not fit for purpose.
The current energy market structures, including the short-run-marginal-price-on-all nature of the current wholesale market, are not fit for a transition to a renewables-dominated system.
The present emergency responses to the energy crisis across Europe are unsustainable and are generating acute economic and political tensions, which could grow. The UK moved from targeted fiscal supports to a more general price cap on electricity, which, due to its cost (to government) is now set to end after this winter, with a search for new approaches. In the EU, following an acute focus on gas prices, attention is turning to the scale of unequal cost burdens and windfall profits in the European electricity market, precipitating urgent debate about reforms that could also align with the need to further accelerate the move away from fossil fuel generation.
All this geopolitical hot air was always going to be about gas, and, predicting that, before all the horse trading and brinkmanship began, we caught up with two independent energy experts, Irina Slav and Ben Aris.
The post The Nord Stream Dream Is America’s Nightmare appeared first on Renegade Inc.
The state of the world from the elite point of view.
The post The Voldemort Index appeared first on Economics from the Top Down.
Bankers have contributed a-third of the party’s income over recent months, amid plans to remove the cap on their bonuses, reports Sam Bright