Bitriver, the largest data center in the former Soviet Union, was opened just a year ago, but has already won clients from all over the world, including the U.S., Japan and China.
That could help a developer make money minting coins at a time when there’s lots of wind or sunshine, but not much electricity demand.
There are so many existing incentives that the International Energy Agency expects wind and solar to account for around 12% of electricity demand by 2030, up from 5% in 2019.
The Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge estimates it uses more electricity a year than the Netherlands.
In their research, ARK and Square proposed that a renewable power project could be built without a grid connection, just to power a Bitcoin operation.
Research from the Centre for Alternative Finance shows that Bitcoin mining is dominated by China, a country currently driving a boom in new coal plants.
By comparison, Iceland and other Nordic nations, once seen as a green haven for Bitcoin, were producing less than 1% of the coins each.
And by using coal to generate most of its power, harmful carbon emissions keep going up.
Plus, there may also be better uses for renewable power than making Bitcoin, like decarbonizing existing energy demand that relies on burning fossil fuels.