Bitcoin Mining produces energy gold. Use it to help preserve the environment.
Bitcoin mining has the potential to have a net beneficial impact on humanity's relationship with energy and sustainability, despite worries about how much energy it uses. The mining industry can accomplish this through supporting sustainable energy sources and utilising sporadic, stranded, and waste power sources. The possibility of collecting extra heat produced by bitcoin mining and use it for other heating requirements has not yet been fully studied. Let's think about how Bitcoin mining can not only benefit the environment and humankind's relationship with energy by acting as a buyer of zero-carbon energy but also as a producer of recyclable and reusable energy this Earth Day.
The potential for bitcoin to recycle energy
Understandably, a large portion of Bitcoin's detractors are concerned about the cryptocurrency's increased energy usage. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, since the beginning of the digital currency, Bitcoin's electricity consumption has only increased. Although there have been ups and downs, Bitcoin's greenhouse gas emissions have also increased over time.
However, the energy use of Bitcoin is not the entire picture.
Utilizing and rerouting the excessive heat generated by bitcoin mining is not simply a theoretical option. In fact, there are proposals to use Bitcoin miners to generate heat for a Canadian city. Lonsdale Energy Corporation, an energy provider, and MintGreen, a bitcoin mining business, are collaborating to at least partially meet the demand for heat in North Vancouver.
Approximately 20,000 tons of harmful gas per megawatt will be recycled by MintGreen instead of entering the atmosphere and causing global warming. Instead, this risk associated with hazardous emissions will become a strength: The energy that the miners initially use will be turned into thermal energy, which will be used to heat a number of buildings, at a rate of over 95%. The city will be able to rely on its excess heat at any time of the year because bitcoin miners can operate continuously and there will almost definitely always be a supply of them accessible.
This project is not just a pipe dream. In order to supply them with heat during the bitter Canadian winters, MintGreen had already reached agreements with the Vancouver Island Sea Salt plant and Shelter Point Distillery.
Due of its adaptability, bitcoin mining can also be utilized to generate extra heat for leisure activities. A normal swimming pool costs between US$2,000 and US$5,000 to heat. This financial drain and related energy usage can be eliminated through bitcoin mining. Simply attach your Bitcoin mining device to the water pump in your pool. You get the most difficult thing ever made while also receiving free pool heating.
While it's entertaining to heat a pool, there are more significant use for the extra heat generated by bitcoin miners. Companies and researchers are already working together to build greenhouses that are heated by Bitcoin mining.
In the Netherlands, a greenhouse for tulips is being heated by Bitcoin mining, reducing the need for gas, which has become more expensive since Russia's conflict on Ukraine. Another mining business in Sweden is heating a 300 square meter greenhouse where fruit and vegetables are grown using 600 kilowatt ASIC miners. The miners are housed inside a data center container that has an air duct system that transfers heat from the ASICs to the greenhouse. In theory, this would maintain a constant temperature of 77 degrees Fahrenheit in the greenhouse. The potential savings on heating expenses and usage are considerable given that the area's winter lows are 22 degrees Fahrenheit.
The recycling and reuse of miner waste heat has the potential to boost the profitability and sustainability of indoor farming and food production, just as Bitcoin mining can make effective use of sporadic, stranded, and waste energy sources. According to one study, "A 1 [megawatt] data center would have the ability to strengthen the local self-sufficiency up to 8% with products that are competitive on the market."
Simmering Confrontation
The heat generated by bitcoin miners is not welcome by everyone, especially those who experience its unexpected repercussions. For instance, Seneca Lake homeowners in upstate New York have complained that their lake "feels like you're in a hot tub" due to a neighboring power plant's cooperation with over 8,000 miners.
Every day, the power plant returns 135 million gallons of the 139 million gallons of water it receives from the lake. In the summer, the water that is recycled back into the lake can reach 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Although in theory there are ways to address the issue, we must acknowledge that sometimes miners' heat has unfavorable effects on a community's ecology.
Using sustainable energy sources is important.
Another method that Bitcoin mining can help fight climate change is by harnessing and directing its excess heat, in addition to helping to subsidize renewable energy. Imperial College London calculated less than ten years ago that 40% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions and nearly half of all energy usage in residential and commercial buildings came from heating. It may have the greatest transformative effect on climate change in a generation if all of this heat could be produced via carbon-neutral methods.
On the surface, it might not seem like enough of a difference to replace carbon-emitting heat sources with the surplus heat of Bitcoin miners. After all, using the surplus heat generated by Bitcoin miners to heat one's home may not necessarily result in a sufficient reduction in emissions for us to accomplish our climate targets.
But bitcoin miners are special in that they can make renewable energy sources profitable that would not have been in their absence. If miners themselves are powered by, say, solar energy, heating business and residential buildings with their surplus heat could actually assist reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humanity.
As we've already shown, using the excess heat generated by Bitcoin miners to heat houses and power indoor farms is not just a pipe dream. It may not take much imagination to envision the impact Bitcoin mining might have on the environment if it were possible for them to run totally on carbon-neutral energy.
Article Credit: Yahoo! Finance
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