Current Events > Over 2% of total US electricity generation now goes to bitcoin mining

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/

What exactly is bitcoin mining doing to the electric grid? In the last few years, the US has seen a boom in cryptocurrency mining, and the government is now trying to track exactly what that means for the consumption of electricity.

While its analysis is preliminary, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates that large-scale cryptocurrency operations are now consuming over 2 percent of the US's electricity. That's roughly the equivalent of having added an additional state to the grid over just the last three years.

While there is some small-scale mining that goes on with personal computers and small rigs, most cryptocurrency mining has moved to large collections of specialized hardware. While this hardware can be pricy compared to personal computers, the main cost for these operations is electricity use, so the miners will tend to move to places with low electricity rates.

The EIA report notes that, in the wake of a crackdown on cryptocurrency in China, a lot of that movement has involved relocation to the US, where keeping electricity prices low has generally been a policy priority.

One independent estimate made by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance had the US as the home of just over 3 percent of the global bitcoin mining at the start of 2020. By the start of 2022, that figure was nearly 38 percent.

The Cambridge Center also estimates the global electricity use of all bitcoin mining, so it's possible to multiply that by the US's percentage and come up with an estimate for the amount of electricity that boom has consumed.

Because of the uncertainties in these estimates, the number could be anywhere from 25 to 91 Terawatt-hours. Even the low end of that range would mean bitcoin mining is now using the equivalent of Utah's electricity consumption (the high end is roughly Washington's), which has significant implications for the electric grid as a whole.

So, the EIA decided it needed a better grip on what was going on. To get that, it went through trade publications, financial reports, news articles, and congressional investigation reports to identify as many bitcoin mining operations as it could. With 137 facilities identified, it then inquired about the power supply needed to operate them at full capacity, receiving answers for 101 of those facilities.

If running all-out, those 101 facilities would consume 2.3 percent of the US's average power demand. That places them on the high side of the Cambridge Center estimates.

The mining operations fall in two major clusters: one in Texas, and one extending from western New York down the Appalachians to southern Georgia. While there are additional ones scattered throughout the US, these are the major sites.

The EIA has also found some instances where the operations moved in near underutilized power plants and sent generation soaring again. Tracking the history of five of these plants showed that generation had fallen steadily from 2015 to 2020, reaching a low where they collectively produced just half a Terawatt-hour. Miners moving in nearby tripled production in just a year and has seen it rise to over 2 Terawatt-hours in 2022.

These are almost certainly fossil fuel plants that might be reasonable candidates for retirement if it weren't for their use to supply bitcoin miners. So, these miners are contributing to all of the health and climate problems associated with the continued use of fossil fuels.

The EIA also found a number of strategies that miners used to keep their power costs low. In one case, they moved into a former aluminum smelting facility in Texas to take advantage of its capacious connections to the grid. In another, they put a facility next to a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and set up a direct connection to the plant. The EIA also found cases where miners moved near natural gas fields that produced waste methane that would otherwise have been burned off.

Since bitcoin mining is the antithesis of an essential activity, several mining operations have signed up for demand-response programs, where they agree to take their operations offline if electricity demand is likely to exceed generating capacity in return for compensation by the grid operator. It has been widely reported that one facility in Texasthe one at the former aluminum smelter siteearned over $30 million by shutting down during a heat wave in 2023.

To better understand the implications of this major new drain on the US electric grid, the EIA will be performing monthly analyses of bitcoin operations during the first half of 2024. But based on these initial numbers, it's clear that the relocation of so many mining operations to the US will significantly hinder efforts to bring the US's electric grid to carbon neutrality.

man, fuck crypto

Is that good

If only we had a competent government

It should be a crime to mine it unironically

-Worsens climate change
-Drives up energy prices
-Might legit kill people in areas going through severe weather by being the tipping point for causing rolling blackouts.
-The stupid shit where we pay them to stop is absurd.

Antifar posted...

Is that good

A questionable economic activity using fossil fuels to strain the grid to levels somewhere between the usage of Utah and Washington state? Doesn't sound good.

How do you mine it ironically? I'm asking because of my name.

The world would be so much better off without cryptocurrency and snake oil selling "crypto bros"

Yeah, I saw this yesterday.

Morons.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

-Might legit kill people

A lot of these crypto morons are completely clueless on how PCs and electricity work.
A couple of years ago there was a case in my area where a woman died. Electricity surge from a poorly set-up mining rig killed her.

Natural selection, some would say.

RchHomieQuanChi posted...

The world would be so much better off without cryptocurrency and snake oil selling "crypto bros"

I never understood how did banks that control everything allow crypto to spiral out of control.
For example, 10 of us in here decide we're creating a CEMEN currency and that from now on it's going to be worth $10k per 1 CEMEN. And everyone just accepts it? Like wtf?
That's what crypto is, pretty much. Creating money out of thin air.

Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't exploit idiots for easy money, but I kind of never understood how something that literally generates money out of nothing became so uncontrolled. Especially with how easy it is to evade taxes or even pay for illegal services with crypto.

This is good for bitcoin

Imagine when we build the galaxys first Dyson sphere for the sole purpose of mining bitcoin. This is just the beginning

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/57948b2c.jpg

Shut crypto down.

It has not been a positive thing.

Im surprised its that low, considering ho important Bitcoin is

China, like w/ its Tik Tok vs. ours, once again shows it knows better than we do about the menace of certain Current Things.
It sucks b/c electricity prices already spiked and it's basically going to kill the electric car (which I wouldn't be surprised if that was a hidden goal of the people financially propping up this Tulip frenzy), but raising electricity prices is the only easy way to stop this shit.
And then these fuckers will just move on to another country.

Unsuprised_Pika posted...

It should be a crime to mine it unironically

-Worsens climate change
-Drives up energy prices
-Might legit kill people in areas going through severe weather by being the tipping point for causing rolling blackouts.
-The stupid shit where we pay them to stop is absurd.

I hope someone is engraving some stone walls/tablets w/ pictographs of our hubris for when climate change wipes us all out. So that if any humans in the far future survive or aliens find our planet, they can understand how in an environment already teetering b/c of our own emissions, we as a species decided to accelerate towards oblivion by inventing a new fake currency that demands the equivalent of burning down a small forest every day in carbon footprint.

Amocat posted...

Im surprised its that low, considering ho important Bitcoin is

It's 2% of all electricity usage. Try to think of everything electricity is used for between home and offices, then quadruple the number b/c I guarantee you forgot a lot of things.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6a82ebf4.jpg

GunmaN1905 posted...

A lot of these crypto morons are completely clueless on how PCs and electricity work.
A couple of years ago there was a case in my area where a woman died. Electricity surge from a poorly set-up mining rig killed her.

Natural selection, some would say.

I never understood how did banks that control everything allow crypto to spiral out of control.
For example, 10 of us in here decide we're creating a CEMEN currency and that from now on it's going to be worth $10k per 1 CEMEN. And everyone just accepts it? Like wtf?
That's what crypto is, pretty much. Creating money out of thin air.

Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't exploit idiots for easy money, but I kind of never understood how something that literally generates money out of nothing became so uncontrolled. Especially with how easy it is to evade taxes or even pay for illegal services with crypto.

Crypto shit is unsecured (as far as banking goes) so why would they care about Bitcoin?

Amocat posted...

Im surprised its that low, considering ho important Bitcoin is

It's not important. It's a bunch of hype to try to convince you a thing that's not inherently valuable actually is. It's been around for 15 years and still hasn't caught on for any kind of widespread use as a currency, the thing Bitcoin is ostensibly supposed to be.

Amocat posted...

Im surprised its that low, considering ho important Bitcoin is

It's not low. Or important.

BlueKat posted...

man, fuck crypto

Tyranthraxus posted...

Crypto shit is unsecured (as far as banking goes) so why would they care about Bitcoin?

I was going more from the angle of unregulated money flow.
Before crypto, it wasn't that easy for even technologically illiterate people to anonymously send money around without sender or receiver being known. Now everyone can figure it out in minutes.
And a lot of reputable sites added crypto option.
Considering how goverments in biggest countries want to tax everything, seems kind of strange they just allowed crypto to become the easiest way to anonymously make bigger transfers online.

Inaccurate topic titles should be moddable.
I clicked it thinking if bitcoin hsed 2% how much is used up by all da cryptos, only to read it is 2% in da OP.

higher in Texas i bet they have free reign of the grid

GunmaN1905 posted...

I was going more from the angle of unregulated money flow.
Before crypto, it wasn't that easy for even technologically illiterate people to anonymously send money around without sender or receiver being known. Now everyone can figure it out in minutes.
And a lot of reputable sites added crypto option.
Considering how goverments in biggest countries want to tax everything, seems kind of strange they just allowed crypto to become the easiest way to anonymously make bigger transfers online.

Crypto is taxed at least in America. Banks make their money off interest, not in the transfer of money. They have no reason to care about crypto any more than they care about the government (finally) spinning up their way to transfer money natively for free.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Crypto shit is unsecured (as far as banking goes) so why would they care about Bitcoin?

And that's what has kept the government out for the most part. Banks don't see it as too much of a threat to their business, so they haven't really pushed the feds for regulation. IMO, only the EU is seriously trying to set up guidelines.

Yeah, but most of it is Texas.
Fuck Texas

mustachedmystic posted...

Inaccurate topic titles should be moddable.
I clicked it thinking if bitcoin hsed 2% how much is used up by all da cryptos, only to read it is 2% in da OP.

There's enough bullshit moderation on this site. Not sure if grammar issues are a cause or sign of bad reading comprehension, but here we are. The topic title is accurate.

GunmaN1905 posted...

I never understood how did banks that control everything allow crypto to spiral out of control.
For example, 10 of us in here decide we're creating a CEMEN currency and that from now on it's going to be worth $10k per 1 CEMEN. And everyone just accepts it? Like wtf?
That's what crypto is, pretty much. Creating money out of thin air.

Now I'm not saying that people shouldn't exploit idiots for easy money, but I kind of never understood how something that literally generates money out of nothing became so uncontrolled. Especially with how easy it is to evade taxes or even pay for illegal services with crypto.

This is basically no different then the stock market, except that with stocks there is technically some company or something you supposedly have a piece of. Not that you can go use that to claim ownership over, say, the factory machinery they have.

The value of said stock in said company doesn't reflect the actual value of what they have. It can and may well vary wildly. If something happens that makes the company need to liquidate itself, odds are you will lose money as its "value" skydives back to around whatever it can sell its stuff off for.

BTW, this is a slam against the stock market as well, not a defense of crypto. Look up the South Sea Bubble sometime.

Sephiroth_C_Ryu posted...

This is basically no different then the stock market, except that with stocks there is technically some company or something you supposedly have a piece of. Not that you can go use that to claim ownership over, say, the factory machinery they have.

The value of said stock in said company doesn't reflect the actual value of what they have. It can and may well vary wildly. If something happens that makes the company need to liquidate itself, odds are you will lose money as its "value" skydives back to around whatever it can sell its stuff off for.

BTW, this is a slam against the stock market as well, not a defense of crypto. Look up the South Sea Bubble sometime.

I get what you're saying, but those companies at least exist. (well most of them, lmao)
It's more about the creation of crypto. Brand new currency out of nothing.
That's what I was trying to point out with my post.
Yes, technically when you mine crypto it exists in digital world, but why is it allowed to have value? It's just digital money.

If we decided to create a physical currency like I tried to describe, we certainly wouldn't be allowed to do so.

GunmaN1905 posted...

If we decided to create a physical currency like I tried to describe, we certainly wouldn't be allowed to do so.

You totally can, it just wouldn't be legal tender, so like Bitcoin it would only be worth what you could convince other people what it's worth.

brestugo posted...

several mining operations have signed up for demand-response programs, where they agree to take their operations offline if electricity demand is likely to exceed generating capacity in return for compensation by the grid operator. It has been widely reported that one facility in Texasthe one at the former aluminum smelter siteearned over $30 million by shutting down during a heat wave in 2023.

this is ridiculous

move in somewhere, suck up all their electricity to make money, and then also ask for money when you decide to stop sucking up their electricity

brestugo posted...

There's enough bullshit moderation on this site. Not sure if grammar issues are a cause or sign of bad reading comprehension, but here we are. The topic title is accurate.

The title says bitcoin is 2%, the body says all crypto.

mustachedmystic posted...

The title says bitcoin is 2%, the body says all crypto.

FFS:

To get that, it went through trade publications, financial reports, news articles, and congressional investigation reports to identify as many bitcoin mining operations as it could. With 137 facilities identified, it then inquired about the power supply needed to operate them at full capacity, receiving answers for 101 of those facilities.

If running all-out, those 101 facilities would consume 2.3 percent of the US's average power demand.

Forgive my lack of knowledge on the mining side of krypto, but is it not essentially free money? Provided the person only intends to sell it, that is.

The_Korey posted...

Forgive my lack of knowledge on the mining side of krypto, but is it not essentially free money? Provided the person only intends to sell it, that is.

It's "free" in the sense that it consumes publically paid-for resources (electricity) and converts them into personal money

I don't think it's a particularly fast source of income though unless you do it at an extremely large scale

So much money and resources are spent on things purely to drive value where there is no intrinsic value but yeah let's draw the line at Crypto...

SHRlKE posted...

So much money and resources are spent on things purely to drive value where there is no intrinsic value but yeah let's draw the line at Crypto...

Most of them aren't destroying our planet just so that nerds can pretend to invest in a currency no one actually uses. Hope this helps!

SHRlKE posted...

So much money and resources are spent on things purely to drive value where there is no intrinsic value but yeah let's draw the line at Crypto...

dang all those examples you provided blew me away

The_Korey posted...

Forgive my lack of knowledge on the mining side of krypto, but is it not essentially free money? Provided the person only intends to sell it, that is.

It's free money in the sense that you let your computer help with a mathematical operation and you get a small fee for doing so, but Bitcoin mining hasn't been profitable for individuals for a long time now because the cost added to your electric bill exceeds the amount you would get in fee for mining. At this point only large scale, Warehouse sized mining operations can be profitable.

Irony posted...

How do you mine it ironically? I'm asking because of my name.

Have a generator that is powered by hitting it with a pickaxe as the power source for the miner.

Irony posted...

How do you mine it ironically? I'm asking because of my name.

Mine it solely to use the waste heat as a space heater.

UnsteadyOwl posted...

It's not important. It's a bunch of hype to try to convince you a thing that's not inherently valuable actually is. It's been around for 15 years and still hasn't caught on for any kind of widespread use as a currency, the thing Bitcoin is ostensibly supposed to be.

Exactly. Seems the only use of bitcoin is to pay if you get caught by ransomware. Don't know why people would need to hoard large amounts of it.

GunmaN1905 posted...

I was going more from the angle of unregulated money flow.
Before crypto, it wasn't that easy for even technologically illiterate people to anonymously send money around without sender or receiver being known. Now everyone can figure it out in minutes.

But when was this ever a problem?

Most people have never actually made a large international transfer like you describe.

Tyranthraxus posted...

You totally can, it just wouldn't be legal tender, so like Bitcoin it would only be worth what you could convince other people what it's worth.

Do they still do Disney dollars?

undefined posted...

Most of them aren't destroying our planet just so that nerds can pretend to invest in a currency no one actually uses. Hope this helps!

No youre probably right but its not the zinger you think it is.

All I see from this post is boot kissing to men in suits and hating nerds for doing the same thing.

GunmaN1905 posted...

I get what you're saying, but those companies at least exist. (well most of them, lmao)
It's more about the creation of crypto. Brand new currency out of nothing.
That's what I was trying to point out with my post.
Yes, technically when you mine crypto it exists in digital world, but why is it allowed to have value? It's just digital money.

If we decided to create a physical currency like I tried to describe, we certainly wouldn't be allowed to do so.

The South Sea Bubble was an early warning that stocks are dangerous. We didn't listen. Crypto and other invented wealth only exists because the stock markets got away with it first, and then even after almost destroying NATIONS IN THE 1700s, were allowed to stick around with only a little extra legislation.

People will always try to invent wealth if they are allowed.

They should be forced to go off grid if they want to mine crypto so much.

The worst part about all of this is Bitcoin doesn't work well, probably among the worst cryptos in terms of performance, and mining isn't needed (even Ethereum is moving away from mining to proof-of-stake, and many others have functioned without mining for years). So even if you want crypto, there is no actual reason to have mining.