This is a collection of concrete examples of energy monetisation around the world. It's a bullet-point version of a blog post The Machine that Turns Energy into Money.
1. General Resources
2. Balance energy grids
3. Finance energy projects
4. Create incentives to capture methane
5. Reduce heating bills
6. Non sustainable uses of mining
- Understanding Proof of Work - A non technical introduction to bitcoin mining and its implications for investors Paper by Fidelity Digital Assets.
- Chapter 10 - Mining and Consensus Technical explanation of Bitcoin mining in Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas Antonopoulos.
- Bitcoin Mining Council H1 2023 presentation Latest energy data collected by the Bitcoin Mining Council
- Cambridge Bitcoin energy usage estimate University of Cambridge estimated lower-upper bounds for Bitcoin network electricity consumption.
- Cambridge Bitcoin CO2 emission compared Comparaison of Bitcoin emissions with other industries and global share.
- How Bitcoin Mining Can Transform the Energy Industry Report published in September 2022 by K33 Research (formerly Arcane Research). Requires Google sign-in.
- Geopolitics and Bitcoin Mining Report by @BTCMiningGroup on the state of Bitcoin mining around the world, 12 May 2023.
Backgrounders:
- The Energy Academy Maintained by UK company Modo.
ERCOT:
- what is curtailment Bitcoin mining council Q2 2022.
- Economic incentives Bitcoin mining council Q2 2022.
- selling back to the grid Bitcoin mining council Q2 2022
- Demand-response types of contract Pierre Rochard speaking at Surfing Bitcoin 2022.
- Negative electricity prices Jaran Mellerud speaking at Surfing Bitcoin 2022.
- Les mineurs de bitcoin américains soulagent le réseau électrique pendant la vague de froid January 2024 article from Cointribune giving an example of how the Texas grid protects itself by switching off miners in winter.
- Bitcoin Mining Around the World: United Arab Emirates Research article by Jaran Mellerud.
- Demand-side response program Education video by The Energy Academy from Modo Energy.
- Software to monitor on-demand control Optimize Infrastructure website.
- Renewable energy projects worth billions stuck on hold Article from BBC News, May 2023. There are delays in connecting new power plants to the grid. This is spare capacity that could be monetised with Bitcoin mining.
- La modulation nucléaire : un risque majeur Feb 2023 article by Jean-Jacques Nieuviaert published in lemondedelernergie.com explaining why excess nuclear energy is a problem.
- Bitcoin mining around the world Series of in-depth research articles by Jaran Mellerud.
- Nima Tabatai from Modo Energy talking on What Bitcoin Did
- Why No One Saw The Success of Demand Response Coming Forbes, Jan 2023
- Pay-as-you-go electricity bills with Lightning Synota company website
- Lightning electricity meters explained Video of Austin Mitchell from Synota interviewed by Preston Pysh
- Load banks Tweet by Daniel Batten
UK (the potential for mining stranded energy)
- Renewable energy projects worth billions stuck on hold BBC article on the issue of interconnect queues in the UK.
- British energy developers to be told: speed up projects or leave queue for grid Guardian article on the issue of interconnect queues for solar projects in the UK.
US
- From Mining to Mitigation: How Bitcoin Can Support Renewable Energy Development and Climate Action Study published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.
- Terawulf mining facilities Company page showing details of the facilities including the Nautilus Cryptomine based 100% on nuclear.
- TeraWulf's Zero-Carbon Hydro and Nuclear Powered Bitcoin Mining Facilities Tour Shows the inside of the various mining farms, employee interviews and monitoring rooms.
Hawaii:
- Ocean Bit website of the company researching ocean energy generation 'OTEC'
- How Bitcoin Can Unlock The Energy Of The Ocean For 1 Billion People Detailed article explaining the origin of OTEC, how it works and the business case for bitcoin mining financing of prototypes.
Canada
- Mining Bitcoin with Nuclear Energy and Small Modular Reactors Ryan MacLeod interviewed in What Bitcoin Did
- Bitcoin mining with Small Modular Reactors Ryan MacLeod talking at Adopting Bitcoin 2022 in El Salvador
Oman
- Green Data City Government project in Oman.
- Sebastien Gouspillou's announcement about Green Data City interviewed by GAC during Africa Bitcoin Conference 2023.
El Salvador
- Volcano Energy Mining Pool Goes Live Article in Bitcoin Magazine.
- Volcano Energy on Twitter.
- El Salvador mined nearly 474 bitcoins, adding to state crypto holding, in last three years Reuters.
Congo
- Gorillas, militias, and Bitcoin: Why Congo’s most famous national park is betting big on crypto Article in MIT Technology Review
- The Bitcoin miracle at Virunga Intervention of Sebastien Gouspillou at Adopting Bitcoin 2023 to give an update on activities in the Virunga Park
Nigeria, Kenya, Malawi
- The surprising, simple answer to Africa’s rural energy problems – Bitcoin mining Msn article explaining the economics behind mini grids, September 2023.
- Post Halving Strategies For Miners - Bitcoin Amsterdam 2023 Nigeria government allows individuals to produce up to 1MW of electricity (mini grids).
- Gridless specialises in river and solar bitcoin mining in Africa
- Gridless twitter
- Gridless Is Extending Power to Rural Africa Article by CoinDesk, April 2023.
- Energy and Bitcoin in Africa Paper by Gridless that explains the business case and technical set-up behind mini-grids in rural Africa.
- Micro hydro plants example of very small Bitcoin mining setup on a water streams.
- Bitcoin in Africa Show: Live from 2023 Africa Bitcoin Mining Summit; Gridless's Gitugu Site Tour Detailed visit of a hydro power site in Kenya.
- Gridless expands to farm waste twitter post.
- Gridless - Janet Maingi - AB24CPT Day 1 - Machankura Stage Presentation of Gridless by co-founder Janet Maingi at Adopting Bitcoin Cape Town 2024
- Stranded: How Bitcoin is saving wasted energy and expanding financial freedom in Africa Article by Alex Gladstein, January 2024.
- The African village mining Bitcoin Article by Michael Tobin and Ian Birrell, Unherd, January 2024.
Ethiopia
- Ethiopia To Become The First African Country To Start Bitcoin Mining Forbes, February 2024.
Bhutan
- DHI confirms that it is mining Digital Assets Article published in The Bhutanese, April 2023.
- Bhutan Plans a $500 Million Fund for Crypto Mining in the Himalayas Announcement by Bitdeer, May 2023.
Indonesia
- The Indonesia Bitcoin Mining Campaign Video from Bitcoin 2023 in Miami. The governor of the West Java province declares the Bitcoin mining industry welcome in Indonesia to transform 200GW of spare renewable hydro and geo-thermal energy.
- The problem with methane Daniel Batten explains why capturing methane is a priority above reducing CO2 emissions. The video was recorded for Surfin Bitcoin 2022.
- Bitcoin's role in the ESG imperative report by KPMG, August 2023.
- Bitcoin and the Energy Transition from Risk To Opportunity Research paper by Institute of Risk Management, September 2023.
- Bitcoin Network To Reduce More Emissions Than Its Energy Sources Produce Forbes article, July 2023.
- Everything You Need To Know About Bitcoin And The Environment Forbes article, July 2023.
- Bitcoin could become a zero-emission network: Report article by Coin Telegraph, August 2022.
- Bitcoin mining can mitigate gas flaring Presentation by Jaran Mellerud during Surfin Bitcoin 2022.
- Tour of a BTC farm at a flare gas oil well Video by Space Design Warehouse.
- Tour of a flare gas site in Texas Video by Space Design Warehouse.
- ‘Mind-boggling’ methane emissions from Turkmenistan revealed Article from the Guardian, May 2023.
Companies active in this field:
- Crusoe Energy
- How Crusoe Energy Catches Waste Methane to Power Data Centres Article published by the World Economic Forum. Note the wording "Data Centres" instead of "Bitcoin Mining".
- EZBlockchain
- Use cases Shows plenty of photographs of actual gas flaring installations.
- How a Landfill Gas Collection System Works Explainer video by Landfill-Site.com
- Companies active in this field:
- Vespene Energy
- checkout their twitter
- Turning Garbage into Bitcoin with Adam Wright CEO of Vespene Energy interviewed in What Bitcoin Did
- Methane destruction efficiency in turbine vs flaring Tweet from Vespene Energy illustrating efficiency of turbines to process methane. Open flaring is not as clean.
- Nodal Power
- Nodal Power secures $13 million seed round to drive renewable energy transition at landfills Bitcoin Magazine article, August 2023.
- Marathon Digital Holdings
- Marathon Digital Holdings X BM PRO Present Cashing In On Trash Report on landfill methane capture by Marathon, September 2023.
- Cashing in on Trash: Bitcoin Mining Fixes Landfill Emissions Bitcoin magazine interview of Adam Swick from Marathon Digital, October 2023.
- Vespene Energy
Ireland
- In Remote Northeast Ireland, this Bitcoin Miner is Turning Biogas into Sats Article by Bitcoin Magazine, October 2022.
- How Irish farmers are turning cow dung into digital gold Video documentary by Joe Hall from Coin Telegraph.
- The company behind the tech is Scilling Mining
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScillingMining
France
- 4NK provides certification/timestamping services. They offset the CO2 footprint of their nodes using methane capture from the wastewater treatment process.
- Datafarm Energy builds infrastructure to collect gas from biowaste.
- the collected gas is sent to a bitcoin miner and hot air from ASICs is re-used to heat-up greenhouses as explained by Stephane Petibon at Surfin Bitcoin 2022.
- Bitcoin Lake is a Bitcoin initiative in Guatemala that collects the cooking oil that would otherwise be thrown into the lake by villagers, as explained here.
- The cooking oil mining rig in action (video).
- Jaran Mellerud about heat reuse speaking at Surfin Bitcoin 2022.
- Joule heating Current sent through a conductor produces heat whether it is a toaster or an ASIC.
- Re-using mining heat Blog post by Nico Simid.
- 21 Energy (Austria)
- Ofen 800W €710, contains an Antminer S9.
- Ofen Pro 1000W €2998, contains an Antminer S19.
- Heatbit (US)
- Heatbit mini 400W available for $799.
- Hestiia (France).
- myEko Single room heating unit for €990.
- RY3T (Switzerland) makes devices for larger homes.
- Brains home mining guide (DIY)
- Flowsolve Company developing tech that optimises water desalination using heat from Bitcoin mining.
- Bitcoin Atlantis | Day 2 | Satoshi Stage Willem van Rooyen explains desalination optimised with a proprietary micro-controller. March 2024. Timestamp 1:47'00''
- How Bitcoin Improves Water Abundance in Water Scarce Nations Dec 2023 article by Daniel Batten about heat re-use in UAE desalination plants.
- Whisky distillery The Shelter Point Distillery project by Mintgreen in Canada.
- The Mintgreen Whisky tumbler Warming Up to Bitcoin - The Future of Sustainable Heating?, video by Kinetic Finance. The device is optimised to bring a smooth flow of hot air to whisky barrels.
- Mintgreen district heating, twitter @MintGreenHQ.
- Sai.Tech Agriculture heating + district heating in the US with liquid cooling boilers.
- Fruit drying in Congo Sebastien Gouspillou speaking on Grand Angle Crypto.
- Boil the Oceans with Fred Thiel - Pacific Bitcoin 2023 Marathon Digital CEO explains shrimp farming during Pacific Bitcoin 2023.
- Bitcoin Bloem Greenhouse heating in Holland to grow flowers. twitter @BloemBitcoin
- Flower powered: Bitcoin miner heats greenhouses in the Netherlands Article by Joe Hall in the CoinTelegraph.
- Warehouse heating by Bitcoin Brabant.
- Bitcoin Brabant twitter.
- Hotel in Europe heated with ASICs using immersion cooling by DCX Immersion Mining.
- Bitcoin mining at Bathhouse explainer articles by Bathhouse NYC describing how their spa water tank heating equipment is set-up.
- Bathhouse NYC website.
- Mini video report by MorningBrew showing details of the equipment.
- 2018 Moratorium on Bitcoin mining in Plattsburgh, State of New York, USA. Video from Mountain Lake PBS.
- 2022 Moratorium on Bitcoin mining by the State of New York and proposed law to ban mining from fossil fuel. Article by Eric Rosenberg in Investopedia.
- Issue #003: One red, three green Article by Daniel Batten showing a sustainable mining estimate at 54.5%, January 2024.
- Bitcoin mining global energy mix estimated at 58.8% Slide 9 of BMC Q4 2022 Presentation, January 2023.
- Bitcoin mining broken down by energy source Research by Daniel Batten, March 2023.
- The theory of the last man standing Explainer video by Grand Angle Crypto (in French).
- Who will be the last man standing? Sebastien Gouspillou speaking on Grand Angle Crypto (in French).
- Energy market economics 101: the generation stack Video by Modo Energy. Peaker plants running on fuel or gas are the most expensive layer of the stack.