Elon Musk is wrong, Bitcoin won’t help us save the planet – Telegraph.co.uk

Mr Davis said: "Bitcoin miners are going wherever in the world they can buy the cheapest electricity, without any regard to the environmental consequences of how that electricity is generated."

Michel Rauchs, a research affiliate at CCAF, declined to comment specifically on Square's report. He said miners in the US and Europe are wary of the "existential threat" from new regulations and hope to cut their emissions, while miners elsewhere are less concerned.

Asked whether renewables offer miners any cost advantage, he said: "Stranded energy assets like hydro dams, that are far from demand centres and need to be curtailed when generating too much power, are certainly more economical. But that would also be the case for stranded energy assets based on fossil fuels in which case one might argue that Bitcoin mining causes those operations to be economic again."

Christopher Knittel, an economics professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said miners would need specific incentives to switch off their machines at certain times rather than simply consuming any available power 24/7.

Bitcoin is also far from the only way to reduce curtailment. Other companies are experimenting with using excess power to generate hydrogen fuel, trading it other regions and countries, or even sending special train carriages up hills and recouping the energy when they slowly roll back down.

Other solutions involve reducing consumption during peak hours, such as through smart thermometers or companies like OhmConnect, which pays Californians to shift electricity use from evenings to daytimes.

"There's a lot of smart people across a lot of sectors thinking about how to use the lower-price periods," said Mr Davis.

Visit link:

Elon Musk is wrong, Bitcoin won't help us save the planet - Telegraph.co.uk