Suspended Bitcoin Mining Operations:
British Columbia has suspended bitcoin mining operations due to a priority on sustainable energy and the development of jobs.
In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a state-owned electric utility company will stop any further requests for electrical connections from bitcoin miners for 18 months.
The British Columbian government announced in a statement on December 21. It claimed that the break would enable it, and B.C. Hydro to create a long-term framework that could better balance the requirements of crypto miners with those of the local populace and businesses.
According to Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation, the move was taken to protect the clean energy it offers to its citizens and businesses that are more environmentally friendly and create jobs.
“Cryptocurrency mining creates very few jobs in the local economy and requires vast quantities of electricity to run and cool banks of powerful computers 24/7/365.”
Currently, BC Hydro serves seven cryptocurrency mining facilities. Six more, totalling 273 megawatts, are connected to the system at advanced stages and are not anticipated to be impacted.
Cryptocurrency Mining Projects:
It added that 21 cryptocurrency mining projects currently request 1,403 megawatts of electricity. However, new cryptocurrency mining projects will need help to begin the process of connecting with B.C. Hydro and projects at the early stages of the connection process will also be halted.
According to the Ministry, this equates to the energy required to power almost 570,000 residences or 2.1 million electric vehicles throughout the province each year.
In its Crypto dilemma study, published in December 2022, the British Columbia hydro and power authority expressed concern that an “unprecedented number” of cryptocurrency mining operations requests might strain the energy supply and raise electricity costs for B.C. citizens. It said:
Cryptocurrency mining operations could put a strain on B.C. Hydro’s energy supply could lead to less energy being available for environmentally friendly activities like electrification or hydrogen manufacturing and higher electricity prices for British Columbians.
Early in 2022, according to Statista, Bitcoin’s annualized electricity usage reportedly hit a record high, estimated to be larger than Finland’s total annual electricity use at “204.5 TWh.”
As the first U.S. state to do so, New York recently issued a moratorium on proof-of-work (PoW) mining, outlawing any new mining operations that aren’t powered entirely by renewable energy.
