Electricity consumption from China’s Bitcoin mining operations will surpass Italy’s electricity consumption by 2024. That’s what scientists say in Nature. “Without timely intervention, the climate efforts that the country did will be nullified,” they say.
The research shows that about 80 percent of the global Bitcoin mining activity takes place through Chinese miners. According to the researchers, this is due to the cheap electricity in the country and the relatively easy access to mining parts from manufacturers.
Four in ten Chinese miners would use electricity generated from coal, the remaining 60 percent run on renewable energy. Due to the large share of coal-based energy consumption, the researchers argue that China’s Bitcoin mining activities could nullify the climate efforts the country has already made.
In addition, the researchers expect that Chinese mining activities will only increase. Without political intervention, the annual energy consumption of China’s Bitcoin mining activities will reach 296.59 terawatt hours by 2024 and these mining activities will produce 130.50 million tons of CO₂. surpassing it, ”said the researchers in the study.
Currently, researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, find that the electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining is 138.85 TWh per year, more than the Netherlands that consumed 106 TWh of electricity in 2019.