Electricity demand associated with U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations in the United States has grown very rapidly over the last several years. Our preliminary estimates suggest that annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining probably represents from 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption. 1 This additional electricity use has drawn the attention … [continued]
Mining bitcoin is often pretty bad for the environment due to coal being the primary power source, and another key source is natural gas. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shared that in Pennsylvania, Big Dog Energy LLC installed 30 gas-fired generators at one of its gas well pads in … [continued]
CNBC has shared the story of Siraj Raval, an owner of a Tesla Model 3 who has tried various ways of mining cryptocurrencies. His setup includes free bitcoin mining software on his Mac mini M1, which is powered by plugging an inverter into the 12-volt power socket in the center … [continued]
If Bitcoin’s carbon problem got solved, what would stand in its way?
Bitcoin has a well known problem, even if many bitcoin fans would like to ignore it or pretend it isn’t real. The problem is that bitcoin mining uses an enormous amount of electricity. It’s not a large amount, and actually maybe it’s not even an enormous amount — it’s an … [continued]
Earlier this year, Tesla started accepting Bitcoin as a payment option for its vehicles. That has now changed. Earlier this afternoon, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, put out a statement on Twitter about Tesla and Bitcoin. He announced that Tesla suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin and pointed out that the increasing … [continued]
So, as we know, Tesla has now invested $1.5 billion into bitcoin and there are a lot of different opinions about that. In fact it’s an entirely new discussion because never before has a company trying to transition the world to sustainable energy embraced an experimental technology whose side effects … [continued]
Bitcoin mining is a nice fit for a desert solar project, since it needs no power line. The work comes to the site of electricity generation, not the other way round.
