For a long time, the controversy about the “wasted” energy of cryptocurrency mining has never ceased, and the continuous out-of-circle cryptocurrency under the background of the bull market has intensified this controversy. But how much electricity can Bitcoin mining use? How does the electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining compare to the total electricity consumption of Internet giants and even some countries and regions? The answer to this question is given in the Bitcoin Power Consumption Index published by the University of Cambridge.
As of March 18, 2021, in the past year, the total power consumption of Bitcoin mining is about 129 terawatt hours (TWh). “Note: 1 TWh = 1 billion KWh, which is what we usually call 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity” .
As a comparison, in the same statistical period, the total power consumption in China is about 6543 TWh, and the total power consumption in the United States is about 3989 TWh. If the power consumption of Bitcoin mining is compared horizontally among the major countries in the world, the power consumption of Bitcoin mining can be ranked 29th among 196 countries, slightly higher than the total power consumption of 124 TWh in the same year. Norway, and Bangladesh, with a population of 165 million, consumed only 70 TWh of electricity during the same period.
The total power consumption of all data centers in the world is 205 TWh, Google’s total power consumption is 12 TWh, and Facebook’s total power consumption is 5 TWh. In other words, in the past year, the electricity consumed by Bitcoin mining is nearly 11 times that of Google and 26 times that of Facebook.
An earlier report published by the University of Cambridge showed that although 76% of cryptocurrency miners use or partially use renewable energy for mining, the current proportion of renewable energy in cryptocurrency mining is only 39%. Among them, hydropower is currently the most popular energy for cryptocurrency miners. Hydropower accounts for more than 60% in several major regions around the world. At present, clean energy such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy is used in cryptocurrency mining. The proportion is relatively low.
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