AP Photo/Julie Jacobson/Keystone
A huge amount of electricity is needed to mine crypto currencies. In New York, environmentalists are calling for a power plant that has been used for this purpose and want to set an example for the whole country.
Its own power plant for the Bitcoin business – this is how Greenidge Generations from New York feeds its power-guzzling cryptocurrency calculators. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm.
Because the company relies on fossil energy. It has put a decommissioned coal-fired power station near Lake Seneca, around 400 kilometers northwest of New York, back into operation with natural gas. In the plant with a capacity of 106 megawatts, it produces 44 megawatts for its 15,300 computer servers. The overflow is fed into the state network, but tens of thousands of households could be supplied with the electricity that was split off for the bitcoins.
Environmental groups fear a precedent and are warning of a wave of imitators who are using old power plants themselves for their profit and blowing additional greenhouse gas into the air. “As our climate is currently doing, measures against the mining of cryptocurrencies are necessary,” says Liz Moran from Earthjustice.
Last but not least, such projects would also jeopardize the climate targets. The environmentalists are therefore calling on New York State not to renew the necessary permits and to put a stop to similar projects.
Greenidge speaks of renewal
Greenidge, on the other hand, speaks of renewal and new momentum. “For decades, this region has been promised new industries and opportunities,” says a company statement. “We’ll implement it.” And that happens completely within the high environmental standards of the US state. Due to the acquisition of CO2 certificates, the operation of the plant is also climate-neutral.
Greenidge began producing energy in the tourist and wine region on Lake Seneca in 2017. Initially, Bitcoin mining was not even planned, the company explains. The mining of the cryptocurrency really started last year. Greenidge emphasizes that it is bringing “a piece of the world’s digital future” to rural New York.
Estimates differ on how much energy digging Bitcoins eats up. However, the more complex the underlying arithmetic tasks become, the more computing power it takes. In the three months to the end of September, Greenidge claims to have mined 729 Bitcoins. The value of the cryptocurrency is in flux, on Sunday a Bitcoin was just under 52,500 euros.
What is the climate law worth?
In the state of New York alone, around 30 power plants could be converted into digging plants, according to estimates by environmentalists. That shouldn’t happen. A broad alliance has now turned to Governor Kathy Hochul with the appeal not to give Greenidge the green light any more. There is also a requirement that a running power plant near Buffalo not be approved as a mining site.
Hochul should set an example for the whole country. “I think this power plant is above all an important test of whether the state’s climate law is worth anything at all,” says Jedith Enck, the former head of the US environmental agency in the region, of the Greenidge case.
New York’s decision has not yet been made. However, a tweet by environmental officer Basil Seggos reveals clear doubts about the permit: New York State has concerns about the role of Bitcoin mining in greenhouse gas emissions, he wrote.
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