The latest report from the Bitcoin Mining Council shows that the Bitcoin mining industry is rapidly adopting renewable energy to power its data centers.
The use of renewable and green energy in Bitcoin mining has grown by more than a 59% over the past year. This is what the latest one says Bitcoin Mining Council report (BMC), a group of 44 Bitcoin mining companies that own 50% of the world's hash rate (about 100,9 exahashes (EH)).
To prepare the report, the BMC conducted a survey among all the companies that are part of the group in which they were asked how much electricity their companies consumed and what percentage of it was generated through hydroelectric sources, solar, wind, nuclear or geothermal, as well as the hash rate they generated.
The study has revealed that the renewable energy mix used in mining major cryptocurrencies is 58,4%, down 0,1% from last quarter but still up significantly from 36,8% in Q2021 XNUMX.
However, the Bitcoin Mining Council was only founded in June 2021, so it is unclear how the aforementioned Q2021 XNUMX results were achieved.
Finally, the data from the new report indicates that Bitcoin mining companies use, in total, 64,6% renewable energy.
The problems with Bitcoin's energy consumption
One of the main problems with Bitcoin has been the electricity consumption of mining operations. Above all, there is great concern about the consumption of unclean energy, coming from sources such as coal.
For example, Elon Musk stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment for your vehicles Tesla claiming that Bitcoin mining did not fit with the company's principles and that it would only accept the cryptocurrency again when 50% or more of mining is obtained with renewable energy.
In this sense, the data offered by BMC contradicts a study published by the scientific journal Joules, which noted that the ban on Bitcoin mining in China caused a 17% increase in carbon emissions produced by the attempt to maintain the Bitcoin network.
The report takes an in-depth look at total energy use, noting that total energy consumption by the industry is 241 terawatt hours (TWh), less than half the energy currently consumed by the gold mining industry and just 0,16% of global energy consumption.
Bitcoin mining is becoming more efficient
The Bitcoin Mining Council report has also noted that mining efficiency has increased. In this regard, while electricity consumption has been reduced by 25%, the hash rate has grown by 23% from 164,9 to 202,1; indicating a 63% increase in efficiency.
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