Usually the nuke plants don't have a big pile of coal on the side.

The reason it "works" is that the farmers using this had long term, fixed electricity contracts.

So they can mine bitcoin using the cheap (relatively) pre-gas crisis prices.

But yeah, in practice it's a massive waste of energy and natural gas. Because the Netherlands generates about 60% of it's electricity from gas (and another 15% from coal), with renewables, nuclear and biomass making up the rest.

So what happens is that instead of using 1 unit of gas to provide 1 unit of heat, now you use 2 units of gas to provide 1 unit of electricity which gets turned into 1 unit of heat. This strategy is increasing fossil fuel consumption, and it only works because the cost of extra consumption falls upon the power provider, not the farmer.

>There's no such thing as an efficient space heater. They are all the same efficiency: 100%, because all the energy goes to it's intended use, which is heat.

That's not true. Or at least, it's only true for resistive heaters.

Electric power can also be used to drive heat pumpts, which can turn 1 electricity into 3-5 units of heat (depending on the outside temperature).

Stealing heat from the outside is more efficient than creating it.

Unlikely enough that it occurring has been sufficient to convict someone of murder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachute_Murder