Green Energy Usage For Bitcoin Mining Spiked 52.2% In 2021, A Report States

The recent mantra claiming Bitcoin’s energy consumption largely contributes to global warming may turn out to be far from true. A report from the Bitcoin Mining Council, an organization created to promote the use of renewable energy in the Bitcoin mining industry, showcased that renewable energy plays a big role in crypto mining.

The report notes an increase of over 50% in sustainable energy consumption for Bitcoin mining when comparing Q1 and Q2 of 2021. Also, Bitcoin’s network activity spiked 15% in the same period.

Source: Bitcoin Mining Council 

According to the report, as much as 67.6% of the total energy used to mine Bitcoin comes from sustainable sources. The data shows that Bitcoin has a much lower environmental impact than that of the industry in other countries, especially China, which is the main Bitcoin hashrate producer. A large portion of miners, however, is still using electricity generated by coal-fired plants.

The Bitcoin Mining Council also suggests accusations against Bitcoin and its carbon footprint to be more or less decontextualized or overestimated, as Bitcoin mining accounts for 0.007% of the world’s total power consumption.

Bitcoin and sustainable energy had their fair share of battles, but recently entrepreneur Elon Musk decided to first add, then suspend Bitcoin payments for his Tesla automotive brand, due to environmental concerns. Also, the Chinese state made several environmentally oriented miner shutdowns in China, which forced the majority of miners to migrate to different jurisdictions.

However, Larry Cermak, Director of Research at The Block argued against the results, noting that there is currently a migration of miners who are shifting operations after China’s mining ban.

“No one knows how the energy mix would look like until the hashrate from China relocates,” Cermak added on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the Chinese mining ban opened the doors to alternative countries. Miami, for example, states that the abundance of nuclear power is perfect for crypto miners, while Paraguay lures potential miners with cheap hydroelectric power.

However, miners are preferring to be closer to China’s mainland relocation centers. Miners began migrating to Iran long before Tesla’s CEO stopping Bitcoin payments for his cars and China cracking down on verification rigs. Kazakhstan happened to come up as a viable destination for large miners.

However, ecology experts are concerned that relocating the physical location of a given mining rig does not alter that much its carbon footprint, since the country may still be dependent on producing electricity mainly on fossil fuels.