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Bitcoin has a well known problem, even if many bitcoin fans would like to ignore it or pretend it isn’t real. The problem is that bitcoin mining uses an enormous amount of electricity. It’s not a large amount, and actually maybe it’s not even an enormous amount — it’s an absurd amount.

Naturally, people who like the concept are eager to brush it off by saying that bitcoin miners can just use renewable energy — solar and wind are cheapest now anyway for new power production, right? However, that misses a few points. There’s only so much solar PV and wind turbine production capacity, and increasing production capacity takes years, and needs clear signals. Production needs to increase rapidly and it has been increasing rapidly, but that increased production is needed to avoid or turn off fossil fuel power plants. Every single serious plan for reducing emissions an adequate amount by 2030 involves cutting energy use — cutting it a lot. We need to retire coal and fossil methane* power plants yesterday (*aka “natural gas,” but we’re starting to drop the use of this term here on CleanTechnica since it’s a greenwashing term). We need new solar and wind power plants to come online to do that. Even if bitcoin miners started gobbling up solar panels and wind turbines to power their mining, that would mean those cleantech power plants would be less available for other markets and those other markets would be powered by fossil fuels longer.

Sure, in 2050, go for it if you want! Go crypto crazy. But we need to shut down hundreds of fossil power plants in the 2020s, and we can’t be delaying that just because some people don’t want to trust the federal governments and organizations that manage monetary policy today.

But let’s get back to the story. It’s a fascinating one.

With their massive, massive energy needs**, bitcoin miners have been known to use enormous amounts of coal power, particularly in China (**and no, this is nothing like the energy needs of ATMs — which I don’t think I’ve used in ~10 years — or online banking; it is far more energy use on a per-transaction basis). As the bitcoin market grows, it needs to find more and more power around the world, and that means more and more dirty power. That brings us to the news. Recently, 200 bitcoin miners and oil & gas execs reportedly met in a private setting in Houston, Texas. CleanTechnica wasn’t invited, so we can’t say for sure if this was about getting more power supply for mining, if it was about investment opportunities of some sort, if it was about money-hiding tactics to avoid paying taxes, or if it was just a benevolent meeting to chat sports, weather, and pumpkin spice lattes. However, reporting from CNBC indicates it was primarily about the first thing — getting dirty electricity to power more bitcoin mining.

“On a residential back street of Houston, in a 150,000 square-foot warehouse safeguarding high-end vintage cars, 200 oil and gas execs and bitcoin miners mingled, drank beer, and talked shop on a recent Wednesday night in August,” CNBC reported last week. “One big topic of discussion: Using ‘stranded’ natural gas to power bitcoin mining rigs, which both reduces greenhouse gas emissions and makes money for the gas providers, as well as the miners.”

Let’s pick apart that last sentence, because it’s the critical one and the second half of it makes no sense. “Stranded assets” in this context are not power plants that are no longer competitive (though, some of them have been revived or kept alive to power bitcoin mining). Bitcoin mining is bringing economic viability back to a dying fossil-power-plant market in another way. What is being tapped, according to the article, is otherwise unused fossil methane at oil sites. Notably, using that “stranded methane” is making oil drilling more economical, and making it easier to keep selling deceptively cheap oil. There is nothing good about this. And that’s not the end of the environmental disaster. The way this stranded methane is being burned is also extremely inefficient and harmful for our climate.

Bitcoin isn’t a joke. It’s a massive, insane climate disaster.

Here are a few more choice quotes from the CNBC story:

Just take Hayden Griffin Haby III, an oilman turned bitcoiner. The Texas native and father of three has spent 14 years in oil and gas, and he epitomizes what this monthly meetup is all about. 

Haby started as a surface landman where he brokered land contracts, and later, ran his own oil company. But for the last nine months, he’s exclusively been in the business of mining bitcoin. … [H]e co-founded Limpia Creek Technologies, which powers bitcoin mining rigs with flared, vented, and stranded natural gas assets.

Bitcoin miners care most about finding cheap sources of electricity, so Texas – with its crypto-friendly politicians, deregulated power grid, and crucially, abundance of inexpensive power sources – is a virtually perfect fit. The union becomes even more harmonious when miners connect their rigs to otherwise stranded energy, like natural gas going to waste on oil fields across Texas.

“I just knew Houston would be prime to explode because of the energy connection to mining – if we organized a good meetup,” [Parker] Lewis told CNBC. “It’s also key to Texas being the bitcoin capital of the world.”

Capturing excess and otherwise wasted natural gas from drilling sites and then using that energy to mine bitcoin is still firmly in the category of avant-garde tech.

The article noted that this meeting and the bitcoin miner rush to Texas were triggered in large part by China kicking bitcoin miners out. As noted previously, bitcoin miners have been using an enormous amount of coal power, mostly in China. The plan for many of them now seems clear: forget about Chinese coal, just switch to cheap fossil fuel power in Texas.

Anyone who thinks bitcoin isn’t an environmental and climate catastrophe isn’t paying attention or is putting on some seriously handicapping blinders. Switching to such an enormously energy intensive investment tool (because, come on, no one is spending bitcoin like it’s cash money) is not just a mistake. It’s essentially a crime against humanity. Human society is digging the graves of millions or billions of people because of catchphrases and fanciful idealistic thinking. No cryptocurrency is going to wipe out wealth inequality or solve the world’s problems. All I’m seeing so far is that it’s creating bigger problems. (Side note: the cult-like obsession with crypto is also a bit annoying on social media and various forums around the interwebs, and there is no doubt a ridiculous amount of bot activity and propaganda pumping.)

Oh, and I haven’t even gotten to what seems to be the worst part yet. The way that much of this fossil methane is being burned is about as inefficient as it gets. The “miners” are using generators. Here’s more:

“Chemistry is amazing,” explained Adam Ortolf, who heads up business development in the U.S. for Upstream Data, a company that manufactures and supplies portable mining solutions for oil and gas facilities.

“When CH4, or methane, combusts, the only exhaust is CO2 and H2O vapor. That’s literally the same thing that comes out of my mouth when I exhale,” continued Ortolf.

But Ortolf points out, flares are only 75 to 90% efficient. “Even with a flare, some of the methane is being vented without being combusted,” he said.

This is when on-site bitcoin mining can prove to be especially impactful.

When the methane is run into an engine or generator, 100% of the methane is combusted and none of it leaks or vents into the air, according to Ortolf.

“But nobody will run it through a generator unless they can make money, because generators cost money to acquire and maintain,” he said. “So unless it’s economically sustainable, producers won’t internally combust the gas.”

“This is the best gift the oil and gas industry could’ve gotten,” said Ortolf. “They were leaving a lot of hydrocarbons on the table, but now, they’re no longer limited by geography to sell energy.”

Somehow, the CNBC article tries to spin this as a good thing environmentally. I guess the reporter doesn’t know anything about the matter and just bought the bitcoin miners/oil & gas guys’ illogical talking points. Perhaps they even now think that the wonderful CO2 emissions we are flooding our atmosphere with will just lead to more trees and bushes.

Featured photo courtesy of Pixabay/Pexels (CC0)

 

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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