I have come across a number of articles that quantify the energy intensity of Bitcoin mining and its global ecological burden on the planet. After clicking through the first links in Google, I was struck by the apocalyptic tone of the articles demonizing the enormous waste of energy resources. Apart from emotional negativism, these articles generally had a common denominator in the absence of numbers and calculations. Let's become "University researchers" for a moment and calculate this consumption, which with the basic knowledge of the Bitcoin network is a task of difficulty at the level of the second grade of elementary school.
How do we calculate the total Electricity consumption of the entire bitcoin mining network?
- We just need to find out the overall global performance of the Bitcoin network in the world
- Specify the performance and consumption of one mining machine ASIC bitcoin miner
- Calculate how many such machines are needed to achieve the total output.
- Calculate the total electricity consumption. energy of these ASIC miners.
Formula:
(“Performance of all machines” / “Performance ASIC miner" ) * "Consumption ASIC miner"
It's that simple. 🙂
The total performance of the network as of 26.6.2022/XNUMX/XNUMX is 218 PE/s according to the official of the current bitcoin information tool www.blockchain.com . You can also find other useful information about the current state of the Bitcoin network at bitinfocharts.com.
The most used mining ASIC miner for bitcoins
Average computing machine ASIC let's choose a miner for mining bitcoin ASIC antminer S19 Pro which has a power of 100 TH/s with a consumption of 3250 W/h. Which means it consumes 3,2KW of electricity every hour. To achieve 218 EH/s we will need 2 180 000 machines. So 2 million ASIC S19 antminers distributed around the world.
The total electricity consumption of the entire Bitcoin network
In addition to the consumption of 3250W for one ASIC miner, the total electricity consumption of the entire Bitcoin network is 7 W per hour. What is equal to 7 GW/h. As a result, the entire Bitcoin network around the world is currently consuming collateral 7 GW electricity in one hour. It's spread over a year 61 TW/h energy per year for the whole world.
It seems like a huge number, but let's compare it to something tangible. Nuclear power plant They will make dukovany 2GW per hour. Converted: the total electricity consumption of Bitcoin from the whole world is equivalent to 2,5 nuclear power plants the size of Dukovany, or Temelín.
Electricity consumption approximated to the Czech Republic
It seems like a huge number to us, but we calculated Bitcoin mining globally for the whole world and the whole world is huge. The Czech Republic, with a population of 10 million, makes up a total of 7 million inhabitants on the globe 0,126 percent of the world's population. If we wanted to approximate it to the horizon of the Czech Republic, then the consumption falls on the Czech Republic 8,82 MW/h (7GW multiplied by 0,126%). Which is almost equivalent to the Small hydropower plant in Litoměřice with an output of 7MW/h. Or the fact that one of our nuclear power plants would be able to power it 234 Bitcoin networks in the world.
17 ski lifts or 2 Electric Arc Furnaces or 533 Tesla Model 3 cars.
The electrical energy of 8,82 MW per hour would be sufficient for propulsion 17 years oldyžarsky cable cars in the Giant Mountains, or 2 electric arc furnaces for smelting ore, or 533 passenger cars Tesla model 3, currently plying Czech roads at a speed of 100 km/h, consuming 16KW per hour.
Efficient use of residual heat
Although the consumption of electrical energy is not significant, its utilization for bitcoin mining is often associated with secondary use, where it fully replaces otherwise consumed electrical energy. Bitcoin ASIC miner converts the same amount of electrical energy into heat as a direct heater, or an electric boiler for heating hot water. In other words: úthe operation of the direct heater for heating is +- the same as the efficiency ASIC miner, as most of the electrical energy is converted into heat. Amount ASIC miners are used more than half of the time for heating households, greenhouses, underground spaces, heating hot water, or for drying in industry. In addition, solutions using immersion are coming to the fore ASIC miners into mineral oil and through the heat exchanger for swimming pools and central heating systems. It is up to us how we use this residual heat. Otherwise, the energy would be used for heating, so in addition to Bitcoin mining, the heat costs are often paid for us and even the Bitcoin mining itself will pay for itself many times over.
Electricity sources for Bitcoin mining
Most of the large mining farms use renewable sources as a source of electricity, they make up to 76%. Of this, 39% of all large farms use exclusively renewable resources. In the area of smaller mining groups and domestic mining, based on the distribution of our customers, I would like to confirm that the vast majority of our customers use renewable resources such as solar panels or small hydropower plants.
Source: Crypto Analysis Cambridge
In conclusion - it's up to us
Bitcoin mining is not energy-intensive enough to demonize it. It's the same as blaming 533 people for constantly driving back and forth in the Czech Republic. Or blame the skiers on the 17 cable cars in the Czech Republic for not sitting at home, but skiing. In addition, most of the energy to drive this network comes from renewable sources, and in addition, the residual heat is used, which lowers the energy otherwise used for heating water, heating, or drying. Percentage of residual heat used from bitcoin mining a Ethereí, according to the monitoring of the behavior of our customers, is rising and currently reaches more than 60 percent. This trend is driven and will be driven by the natural motivation, efficiency and higher yield, which is not only the extraction itself, but also the use of residual heat.
