“Cryptocurrency mining has been booming in the United States in recent years,” he wrote. ars technica. But they added that the U.S. government is “currently trying to track exactly what that means for power consumption, specifically key departments at the U.S. Department of Energy.”
“Although its analysis is preliminary, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that large-scale cryptocurrency operations currently consume more than 2 percent of U.S. electricity.”
This is roughly equivalent to adding one state to the grid over the past three years. ”
While there is some small-scale mining done using computers and small rigs, most cryptocurrency mining has moved to large collections of specialized hardware. Although this hardware is expensive compared to personal computers, the main cost of these tasks is electricity usage, so miners tend to move to locations with lower electricity prices. The EIA report notes that in the wake of China's crackdown on cryptocurrencies, much of the movement involves relocation to the United States, where keeping power prices low is generally a policy priority. ing.
As of early 2020, the United States accounted for just over 3 percent of global Bitcoin mining, according to independent estimates conducted by the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. By early 2022, that number was nearly 38 percent…EIA decided we needed to get a better picture of what was going on… To better understand the impact of the outflow, EIA will conduct a monthly analysis of Bitcoin operations for the first half of 2024.
The Energy Information Administration identified 137 Bitcoin mining operators, 101 of which responded to inquiries regarding full capacity power supply. “When operating at full capacity, these 101 facilities would consume 2.3 percent of the average electricity demand in the United States,” the article notes. It added that in at least five cases, regulators found that Bitcoin operators had “moved in close to underutilized power plants, causing power generation to surge again.”
“These are almost certainly fossil fuel plants and, if not used to supply Bitcoin miners, could be reasonable candidates for exit.”
