In a previous installment, the panorama of the imminent need to consolidate cryptocurrency mining was presented as a sustainable activity around the world, where the topic of climate change and Bitcoin's energy demand was discussed. On this occasion, another variable is presented to which some researchers point as the axis of the problem, and it deals with the energy sources used.
According to the UN, "energy is the main contributor to climate change and represents around 60% of all global greenhouse gas emissions." In addition, the UN says that fossil fuels have long been the main source of electricity, generating large amounts of greenhouse gases. In this regard, they recommend increasing the use of renewable energy sources for the creation of sustainable societies and even more so when electricity consumption is increasing rapidly.
AFTER SOURCES OF CLEAN ENERGY
Bitcoin is no stranger to that reality. In its specific case, researchers such as Katrina Kelly-Pitou have expressed that the discussion of the issue of energy and bitcoin mining should focus on the sources that produce the energy it consumes rather than on its own energy demand. She states that "the production of electricity can increase while maintaining a minimal impact on the environment. Instead of focusing on the amount of energy Bitcoin uses, the discussion should focus on knowing who produces it, and where its power comes from. "
Kelly-Pitou questions whether carbon emissions are increasing as Bitcoin mining increases around the world because, just as there are miners operating in countries whose power industry feeds on fossil fuels, there are also miners around the world that have been housed in areas with electricity produced from hydroelectric and geothermal energy. Where, in addition, they have a climate of low temperatures that naturally maintains the cooling of mining equipment, thus dispensing with cooling systems.
Therefore, the cases are varied and the concern of environmentalists about the carbon footprint of this activity should not be general, but rather specific in those cases where the electricity used to mine cryptoactives is produced from fuels. fossils (such as the case of the Hut 8 mining farm in Medicine Hat, Canada, which feeds on natural gas), mainly because there is a wide variety of renewable energy options and many of them have been considered to produce the energy needed to generate cryptocurrencies.
NECESSARY STORAGE
A study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), published in September, states that "the exclusive reliance on renewable energy is a very expensive way to clean the energy network, which contradicts the opinion of some scientists that sources such as wind and solar could meet most of the demand for electricity. "
This is because both forms of energy are intermittent, since neither the sun nor the wind are always available, which would imply an increase in storage batteries to meet the continuous demand for electricity, which in turn would increase costs.
In this regard, he points out that one of the aspects considered by cryptocurrency miners when establishing their operations in a specific country is that the energy of the destination is cheap. In addition, if there are no storage batteries, this intermittence in the energy sources could affect their operations.
The MIT study also points out that other energy sources such as hydroelectric, nuclear and geothermal stations could complement the production of electricity in the moments of intermittency of solar and wind energy.
An example of this is an altcoin mining farm established in Costa Rica. This farm uses solar and geothermal energy to produce the electricity it needs for its operations, obtaining it from solar panels and active volcanoes in most of the time, although it is connected to the traditional system when there is shade and / or low volcanic activity.
Iceland is another country where geothermal power plants are used as cheap and abundant sources of energy, in addition to hydroelectric power plants. There, the energy produced from these renewable sources is being used for the extraction of cryptocurrencies, which, together with their climatic conditions, make Iceland an attractive place for miners.
Likewise, last year it was known that an artist and engineer developed a mining prototype of the Zcash cryptocurrency that is powered by wind energy. Its creator expressed at that time that the nodes would be placed in the windiest parts of the world and the generated would be donated to non-governmental organizations dedicated to research related to climate change.
THE HYDROELECTRIC OPTION
In the specific case of hydroelectric power, this is limited by geographical restrictions, but in those areas where they are already established as a source of electricity generation, they are seen as a very attractive option for miners, not to mention the preferred one.
In China, 70% of bitcoin mining is concentrated in the province of Sichuan, where water resources abound and are used for electricity generation, in addition to the fact that the service is economical and the temperatures are favorable for the equipment. .
Such is the case of countries such as Norway and Sweden, which in addition to the abundant and economic electricity produced from falling water, also have a favorable climate for the natural cooling of mining equipment.
On the other hand, in the United States a hydroelectric power plant would be restored to be used only to supply a mining farm in New York. In the same country, the town of Wenatchee, in Washington, has become an attractive destination for cryptocurrency miners, since there is abundant energy produced in the hydroelectric power stations of the Columbia River.
In addition, at the beginning of the year, a study cataloged Venezuela as the cheapest country to mine cryptocurrencies, where 64% of electricity is produced from hydroelectric power.
Despite this, Venezuela has been showing a deep deterioration in its electricity system, which, according to the governor of one of the states most affected by the electricity crisis, is the "illegal" mining of cryptocurrencies, which is powered by the public electricity system. has deepened the problem, further deteriorating the service. This authority also indicated that they would supervise the mining equipment that was supplied with stolen energy.
Ideally, these mining equipment should not compromise the electric power available in the public service for the human activities planned, unless they are connected to the network to take advantage of the surplus of electricity generated, especially in those cases where it is produced. renewable sources and this is not stored, as Andrea Antonopoulos, defender of Bitcoin, said in the following video.
Hydroelectric energy then seems the renewable energy preferred by the miners. However, much remains to be done and researched. In 2016 a study published in BioScience stated that "together, it is believed that reservoirs created by dams are an important source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) for the atmosphere".
SOLID RESIDUES AS A SOURCE OF ENERGY
The founder of FullCycle Energy, Ibrahim Al Husseini, raised the idea that, instead of using renewable energy plants for cryptocurrency mining, "we could use waste-to-energy conversion technologies."
According to Al Husseini, in developed countries domestic waste is incinerated or discharged, methods that it classified as "costly, inefficient and obsolete." He added that in the developing countries "the situation is worse", clarifying that the municipal waste burns them, they end up arranged on the land surface or in bodies of water.
He stressed that nowadays new technologies are being developed to transform solid waste into energy and fuel, adding: "As the blockchain industry proliferates, we must take advantage of clean energy technologies to boost its growth."
The idea of Al Husseini is not at all far-fetched and would help to eradicate more than one environmental problem at the same time. So far, it is unknown if there is any mining farm that is producing its own energy from solid waste.
COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Concerns about the impact of Bitcoin mining on the environment come from 2009. At that time, only weeks after the Genesis block was mined, Hal Finney considered how to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from Bitcoin.
Today many cryptocurrency miners are carrying out their operations with renewable energy in places where they can also do without the cooling systems, which means that part of the crypto-mining sector is directed towards sustainability and, also, demolishes certain matrices of opinion that exist against Bitcoin and its impact on the environment.
This is possible thanks to the geographic independence of mining, which allows miners to take advantage of surplus energy in some areas, energy that is usually cheap for that reason, because the site produces more than what is consumed. According to Antonopoulos explained, Bitcoin transforms that energy surplus, which is not used in another way, in value, and classified the cryptocurrency as "environmental subsidy for the alternative energies of the world".
In conclusion, it is not primarily about how much energy Bitcoin consumes in the extraction of cryptocurrencies (a process that may eventually be optimized in the future) but how polluting is the energy source that is used to produce the electricity needed to extract bitcoins.