Gas-fired power plant burns fossil fuels to generate bitcoins in stunning example of total energy waste
03/10/2020 / By Ethan Huff
Did you know that in the state of New York there’s a natural gas power plant currently in operation that has its own bitcoin mining rig? It’s known as Greenidge Generation, and about $50,000 dollars’ worth of the virtual cryptocurrency is “mined” there daily using gobs of fossil fuel energy.
Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the 65,000-square-foot facility is equipped with some 7,000 crypto mining machines that are capable of generating about 5.5 bitcoins per day. Built in 1937, the facility was originally a coal plant, but was later converted to natural gas.
This so-called “server farm” consumes roughly 15 megawatts (MW) of its 106 MW capacity to harvest invisible bitcoins, a process that as we’ve reported in the past requires massive amounts of energy, and is thus typically more expensive than it’s worth.
At Greenidge, however, a “behind-the-meter” power scheme has made mining bitcoins cost effective, at least according to the guys making it all happen. After many hydro power plants jacked up their formerly inexpensive energy prices after bitcoin became a thing, these bitcoin miners came up with their own solution using natural gas.
After the price of bitcoin plummeted from its all-time high of around $20,000 back in late 2017 to under $8,000 today, many miners called it quits because it simply wasn’t worth it anymore to dredge up the fake money. But those running the rigs at Greenidge have somehow made it profitable again.
Even with the upcoming “halvening” event, expected in May, which will cut the network returns of bitcoin mining in half, the Greenidge crew is of the persuasion that it will still be in their best interest to continue mining bitcoin the way they’re currently mining it.
“We are in a favorable market position regardless of how the halving materializes,” says Tim Rainey, the CEO of Greenidge. “Due to our unique position as a co-generation facility, we are able to make money in down markets so that we’re available to catch the upside of volatile price swings.”
Bitcoin is a fossil fuel hog
Regardless of how you view the legitimacy of bitcoin, what these Greenidge guys have done is a remarkable example of creative ingenuity. At the same time, it’s an environmental nightmare if you believe the narrative of Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who believe that continued fossil fuel use is going to destroy the planet.
The fact that it takes 15 MW of power, or 15 million watts of electrical power per hour, to mine five-and-a-half units of a completely nonexistent digital “currency” per day shows that bitcoin is far worse for the environment than cow farts, gas-powered vehicles, and humans beings breathing.
Greta the climate alarmist should be out there in front of Greenidge protesting in her Arnold Schwarzenegger-gifted Tesla about the absurdity of spending so much energy on something that, for all intents and purposes, if a figment of people’s imaginations.
The decentralization aspect of crypto currency does, in fact, give value to these digital coins, assuming they’re truly anonymous and not controlled by some hidden private central bank. But what’s required to keep it all in operation leaves quite the carbon footprint, if you believe in such things.
“In effect, Bitcoin is powered by coal,” wrote Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in a piece several years back that warned about the bitcoin bubble.
“Even worse, the increasing computational complexity of the Bitcoin algorithm means that the same amount of energy which generated $100 worth of Bitcoin just a year ago only generates about $10 worth of Bitcoin today.”
For more related news about bitcoin, including all the entities that have been burned by this Ponzi scheme over the years, be sure to check out BitRaped.com.
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