Batteries aren’t just about using the generated energy in a useful way, they are about making renewables more profitable by giving them a buyer for all the energy they can produce. Miners are money batteries in this way - they can be fired up on demand to soak up energy the grid doesn’t need, and instead of finding a buyer they can just directly convert excess energy into income.
That's an interesting angle that I hadn't considered before.<p>Not that I don't have serious doubts regarding the viability of Bitcoin overall, but it seems like it could play a role in balancing out the imbalance created by intermittent energy sources.