Bitcoin Increases 59% In Sustainable Energy Use

Bitcoin mining has been at the forefront of environmentalists’ concern ever since the breakthrough leading cryptocurrency started gaining traction and hence more challenging to mine. Its Proof Of Work consensus method relies on utilizing a lot of power. But new evidence from the Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) shows that sustainable energy source use has increased by 60% over the last year. Let’s see what the latest reports from the Bitcoin Mining Council say.

Adoption Of Clean Energy

Miners are adopting more and more sustainable energy. Why wouldn’t they? Their profit margin depends on using low-cost energy. And at times when sustainable energy plants are wasting surplus energy due to being located in remote areas near waterfalls and deserts, they could be selling that energy at cheaper rates instead.

 If you don’t already know, the Bitcoin Mining Council is a collective of 44 mining companies representing around 50% of the global Bitcoin network that formed in June 2021. As stated on their website:

We are a voluntary and open forum of Bitcoin miners committed to the network and its core principles. We promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public on the benefits of using cryptocurrency and Bitcoin mining.

In their latest report, “Global Bitcoin Mining Data Review” for Q1 2022, the BMC asked miners around the globe three simple questions:

1. How much electricity does your total fleet consume today?
2. Today, what is the total percentage of sustainable electricity within your fleet’s power generation mix?
3. What is the real aggregate hash rate of your fleet today?

The report found that the sustainable energy usage from Bitcoin mining grew approximately 59% Year on Year, while mining efficiency increased by 63%. 

Furthermore, even though Bitcoin mining is often criticized for using as much power as an entire country, the BMC report found that Bitcoin mining energy use accounts for 0.16% of the world’s total energy usage.

They also reported that global Bitcoin mining has the highest sustainable energy mix, vs some major regions and countries.

And when comparing Bitcoin mining to other industries, we can see that Gold Mining accounted for 571 TWh of energy used, which is higher than that of Bitcoin Mining, which sat at 247TWh. 

All data has been self-published by the BMC themselves, and an argument could be made that the data, being beneficial to themselves, is presented in the most favorable way for the BMC. But, with every environmentalist’s eyes on the leading cryptocurrency, can this kind of data be weaved out of thin air? One thing is for sure, as the global environmental impact of Bitcoin decreases, the chances of many more organizations utilizing it also increase.

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