{"id":20058,"date":"2018-04-01T09:29:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T22:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=20058"},"modified":"2018-04-01T09:29:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T22:59:03","slug":"virtual-powerline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/virtual-powerline\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Virtual Powerline Technology Make SA-NSW Inconnector Obsolete Before It’s Built?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Virtual Powerline technology is due to disrupt the poles and wires business. Image Credit: BiTchain<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The cornerstone of the new South Australian Liberal government’s energy policy, a new $740 million electricity interconnector with NSW, may be rendered obsolete before construction has even begun thanks to a new blockchain<\/a>\u00a0based ‘virtual powerline’ being built between the two states.\u00a0 The technology was developed by the US company BiTchain<\/a> and has already avoided the building of billions of dollars worth of transmission capacity between the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

The virtual powerline is able to work because with the rise of both the internet and bitcoin mining 19% of the developed world’s electricity is used to either power the internet or for mining cryptocurrencies.\u00a0 This figure can be much higher in locations with low electricity prices where bitcoin miners like to set up shop.<\/p>\n

Most of the world’s servers spend their time sitting idle operating at an average capacity of 31%.\u00a0 This rises during times of higher internet use and peaks during special events such as the release of celebrity nudes or a meme going viral in a major way.\u00a0 The ability of the internet to affect power supply first became apparent back in 2006 when the spread of the “sneezing panda” meme resulted in a surge in server electricity consumption that caused a circuit breaker to trip, resulting in a small blackout in upstate New York.<\/p>\n