US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Clean Energy

Re:US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Cle... by logfromblammo on Tuesday July 02, 2019 @01:30PM (#20337356)

Things that have no price cannot be fairly allocated by a market system, and production cannot be reliably planned.

Also, paying $0.10 per kWh makes us choose between using an air conditioner to cool the interior of an occupied building to 20 degC, or wasting power on mining proof-of-work cryptocoins.

There may be a case for having the first N kWh of residential household use in a month be free, and metering the excess at a higher rate. If I got unlimited electricity at no cost, I, for one, would have an aluminum smelter in my back yard--right next to the Moon-etching laser, programmed to write "CHAIRFACE".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Cle... by anoncake on Tuesday July 02, 2019 @02:07PM (#20337750)

The market system does not even try to fairly allocate anything. It allocates to those who can pay.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Cle... by logfromblammo on Tuesday July 02, 2019 @04:26PM (#20339110)

Let's forget about "fair" then, and focus on the allocation. Whether fair or not by someone's definition of "fair", the market system can allocate resources among uncountable federated actors, without spending a significant fraction of those resources on centralized calculations. A zero-price system cannot do that.

There may exist theoretical alternate systems that can allocate more fairly than a market system. If one can do that with unmetered, no-additional-cost-to-the-consumer electricity, I'd be happy to hear about it, as I am not currently aware of any.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:US Electricity Markets Aren't Designed to Handle 100% Cle... by anoncake on Tuesday July 02, 2019 @05:27PM (#20339567)

Sure, right now unmetered electricity would be a bad idea.

[ Parent | on HN ]