In this first #001 issue New "Gadget" TKOs Series, we look at some ways to keep CRYPTO Nodes running even when the Public Grid goes down, Texas Style, cuz even the 'F ups' in Texas are bigger than most anywhere else, so its a good lace to start this discussion.

DER: Distributed Energy Resources: A Key Part of CRYPTOaaS success "Off-Grid"

Didn't have to be such a mess , per the Texas blackout, provided regulators did their job down there. When the private power, free market rules the roost, expect those daily US$9000.00 bills, when that is the cap of the open market.

Up here in Alberta, Canada, the Price Cap is has producers  paid up to  CDN $ 900.00MW when dispatched in ideal conditions (no sun and wind and cold or hot temperatures and "peaker" CHP plants do quiet well, for example filling their spinning reserve contracts with the Regional or National Authority Authority dispatching them to provide the power at the current market price.) What these IPP Independent Power Producers charge in the market place for power is dictated by their  PPA Power Purchase Agreements with their various clients in different business and consumer markets, where  'price caps' are in place to avoid US $9000.00 per MW/day charges.

Plus up here north of the 49th  we heat our wind turbine blades in the winter to keep them from icing up. (Solar does not work up here, too far north.)

Total Collapse of the Grid: Are you kidding me Texas?

Well it was going to happen sooner or later, complete Grid Failure, now what?

Now take that disaster scenario one step further ,to BTC Centralized Mining Pools in CN. 

The 3GD  "3 Gorges Dam" has cracks, if it fails, the entire mining pool of BTC located downstream gets wipe off the face of the planet. Then What?

( Maybe Confucius did say , "Never Build in flood plain? " If he did say it ,he is indeed, seriously wise.)

Ouch, Texas was certainly victim of Big Green Power Industry Dineand Dash, install the minimum (where are the blade heaters and automated panel cleaners) to maximize profits at the ratepayers expense. Nothing to see here, move on?

Not this time me thinks.

Texas ratepayers are furious and, rightfully so. Most of the  whole State Without Light, Heat, Clean Water and Sewage service for life, indeed, sucks.

That said, the problem in Texas (like most all places in North America) is much deeper than it appears when it comes to power.

The Trouble with BIG Power? Where did all the power go before it hit my wall socket?

(to power my Mining rig & Crypto Node) 

Big Centralized Power Plants with large Transmission(Long haul cabling on BIG Towers to City/Town/County) and Distribution(local, these days mostly in-city underground unless rural) Systems maybe get 55% of the power to a Texan's wall jack on the best of days. The  rest is  power losses (resistance due to cable materials and in the summer, hot weather, as well as bad connections causing more losses are the main culprit) which the good citizens get to pay for in the form of higher energy bills.

So What to do about all this Power Grid failure and future Services Needs including essential CRYPTOaaS?

Improving Your Local Public Grid Resilience: MicroGrid Clusters and Essential Service OffGrid Protection

Show up at your Town Council first in Mass:

Give 'em Hell (5 Second WTF Blast then 10 seconds of silence), and then Give 'em Real Solutions

Start a Referendum, Recruit enlist Councillor Support, but don't wait for Council to act..., build pressure

Local Distribution MicroGrids with local Generation

Have them check the Scientific Method vetted Science in the picture above.

TK Warning- (Do not use Clown Science driven bu politicians)

DER OffGrid Power:  Vital Emergency Services : 9-1-1v , EBS,Local Public Square Social Media & Crypto?

"BESS I hear you callin' ": Battery Energy Storage Systems are part of the CryptoaaS answer

Local Clean Power Generation is the other part of the Answer: Non-Renewables and Renewables Mixed.

Yes,  Really Clean Coal and NG Fired or Even Diesel Powered Generations comes at a cost, buried in the line items of the Quote, Filters, Stack Scrubbers, PLCs, regular maintenance but, so do the renewable equivalents, like where the hell where the blade heaters Texas? and the Auto Panel Cleaners for big solar farms? Regular Maintenance combined with Preventative Maintenance Measures, along with Disposal costs represent at least 35% of the 20 year  power plant investment, whether it be Generation or Storage. (Doing it locally means transmission cost overhead and power losses go away, meaning the Nameplate rating of the Equipment installed locally can be 65% to 50% less costly, depending on configuration)

Oh, yeah, like the local water treatment and sewage plant the staff are all local and work where the power is generated and stored, then delivered from the BESS Array configured as prime mover, backed up by the existing Regional power grid ( providing BESS charging on no wind/dim days) .

Clean local Diesel and local NG  generation roles, also as backup prime mover (when the BESS has maintenance or problems) and a regular BESS charge role,  if their price  is competitive to the existing public grid.

KUMBUYA "Any Mix Goes" Clean Local Power?: What CryptoaaS should run on?

Not Really, the Impending Rise of Low Cost ZincAir vs the Myth of Lithium Polymer to power the MicroGrid Clusters

Zinc Air Flow Batteries have the  Energy Storage Cost & Sourcing Advantage which which current Lithium Polymer of and type cannot possibly compete. (Even when the Lithium Polymer Vendor manages to get a 10 year Rate Payer subsidized Free ride when building battery plants like Tesla in NV.., they are still 200% more expensive than ZincAir Vendors such as VIZN(USA)  and Zinc8(Canada).

Yes Lithium has better power density 3.3V DC to 2.2V DC for the same AAA Roll battery. That said Lithium is much more expensive to either import(CN priced right on the backs of near slave labor) or mined locally (Deeper hard rock mining, requiring crushing  and smelting separation , where as Zinc often exists as (almost ready to use) zinc oxidate (ZincAir Flow Batteries uses Zinc Oxide)  strata, just below the surface and even on the surface (South America) pretty well everywhere. Zinc is also a byproduct of Gold, Silver and Chromium  Smelting Operations during the molten and chemically induced separation of base metals.

So Zinc Rules while Lithium Drools about somehow garnering the lion's share of the BESS container sized market , typically rates by poweroutput in KiloWatts typically in larger cases (Trail BC earlier Flow Battery in MW/hr output)  AND Power Depth ( number of  sustainable kWHrs or MWhrs)

The Role of Non-Renewables Powering Crypto: NG & Diesel:  Important, Readily Available, Locally Sourced, both can be Low Cost and CLEAN. Well maybe a bit cleaner, even than most renewables, when you factor in Environmental and Disposal "Cradle to Grave Costs"

Properly sized and emission scrubber & particle filter equipped backup non-renewable NG with Pipe Heaters in Cold Climates and even Diesel generation and backup primer mover sized for local part time use , makes sense (gets more costly with heaters), keeping in mini CO2 is actually plant food and the real level for lush green planet is actually 1000 PPM (Princeton University, Greenland Core Sample correlations), contrary to the 350 PPM which is has been shouted by NGO sponsored environmentalists. (Where did they get their money anyway to be so vocal and organized?  ;)  )

Clearly Farm and Marine Diesel use with out being properly formulated to be clean and without Particulate Filters regularly changed is not the answer. Having both used as fuel sources ofr part time power generation extends the life of the equipment and keeps the pressure off the price of both fuels, making both useful for a very long time, if properly formulated (reformed in the case of NG) in the first place for cleanest burn and,  equipped with the latest pollution scrubbing or filtering equipment properly serviced. 25% Part time use means the scheduled maintenance overhaul  of the Gas Turbine (NG use) or ICE (Internal Combustion Engine 'glo plug fired' as used for Diesel) is always AFTER end of useful generation life which is costed to lat 20 years (15 year or 20 year amortization schedules) , instead of the routine 5 or 6 year  overhaul maintenance interval often seen with such  Turbine and ICE generation, when used 100% full-time in the "always on" prime mover role of generation. (Off-grid Mobile Towers in the Desert anyone?)   

CRYPTO as an Essential Service? Absolutely, on a par with 9-1-1v, EBS and PUblic Town Square Social Media.

CRYPTOaaES , you saw it here first. ;) . 9-1-1vaaES (Video and picture support during 911 calls) , EBSaaS(Emergency Broadcast System), TownSQaaES (Public Social Media Squares per Community)  all of them need to be  DER OffGrid Powered Capable. Sure the y run on the Grid when its there fed with a BESS always, if the  big Public trickle charging Grid goes away, the DER non-renewable power generation of NG and/or Diesel capable to fill the trickle charge role to the BESS Array networked among the local  neighborhood, sited in local back lanes, behind public walls, along the backside parking of commercial strips, etc. 

DEFI will be up front and centre in 2021 per the post picture above, clikc on link to learn more

An not just one but as many cryptos as possible  serving your local community for service/retail, wholesale, manufacturing, real estate settlement of transactions, for more resilience against Cyber Blackhat Hackers. We will need local developers/QA folks to keep those systems up an running as linked to the community local treasury hardware crypto "multi sig" wallets and also running the local paper/plastic/online/biometric protected voting mechanisms (all of which together fix the lack of transparency Voting Tabulation and eGovernance Budget Tender Award & Disbursement Management problems persisting out there. )

CRYPTOaaS will be essential VERY soon,, which means microgrid clusters and off-grid operation when the big grid goes down will be needed to power the various crypto network nodes living in containers everywhere. ETA of CRYPTOaaS is likely NOW, given the controlled demolition of fiat will take a 3 years and, the planning and capital raise to re-rig the grid to micro-clusters to power these crypto network services off grid will take at least that long.

(He who hesitates is lost.)

The Mighty THORium: Micro Nuclear Reactor- IS it really clean and safe for our Local MicroGrid Project and CryptoaaS?

So much chatter about this lately in the power circles, it bears mentioning...

 Does it have a place? Likely in certain markets, if you can get past the Green Zealots of the age, likely to be a poisonous sale in most parts.

Next Steps: Get Energized at the Local Level and, active in your Town Council to Get your own local power project going.

Hopefully the above energizes some of you to take action locally and present the facts to your town council, I am always around to help...

TK over and out.