{"id":23518,"date":"2025-04-29T18:15:05","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T15:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ccaf-finds-bitcoin-miners-increasingly-using-cleaner-energy\/"},"modified":"2025-04-29T18:15:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T15:15:05","slug":"ccaf-finds-bitcoin-miners-increasingly-using-cleaner-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/ccaf-finds-bitcoin-miners-increasingly-using-cleaner-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"CCAF finds Bitcoin miners increasingly using cleaner energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The share of sustainable energy in Bitcoin mining has reached 52.4%, up from 37.6% in 2022, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jbs.cam.ac.uk\/faculty-research\/centres\/alternative-finance\/publications\/cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report\/\">report<\/a> by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF).<\/p>\n<p>Of that, 42.6% comes from renewables and 9.8% from nuclear. The share of natural gas rose from 25% to 38.2%, while coal fell from 36.6% to 8.9%.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report1.webp\" alt=\"2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report1\" class=\"wp-image-257774\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data: CCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The researchers surveyed 49 mining firms controlling about 48% of the network\u2019s hashrate. Respondents are headquartered in 17 jurisdictions and run mining operations in 23 countries.<\/p>\n<p>The authors note that the sample\u2019s tilt towards North America\u201475.4% of observed activity was in the United States\u2014may skew results. Even so, CCAF argues the findings broadly reflect industry trends and pressures.<\/p>\n<p>According to the survey, miners\u2019 biggest concerns are:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>rising energy prices (57%). Miners pay an average tariff of $0.045 per kWh, and these costs account for over 80% of operating expenses;<\/li>\n<li>unfavourable regulation (47%);<\/li>\n<li>adverse moves in the Bitcoin price (40%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As primary risk-management strategies, respondents cited:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>diversifying into other lines (64%), chiefly high-performance computing and artificial intelligence;<\/li>\n<li>hedging power costs (60%);<\/li>\n<li>broadening the geographic footprint of data centres (55%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The biggest obstacles to expansion are the limited capacity of suitable sites for large-scale mining (47%) and delays in ASIC-miner deliveries (45%).<\/p>\n<p>In the same vein, industry participants also pointed to a lack of access to debt financing (40%) and equity capital (36%).<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, 41% of the companies surveyed are publicly listed.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hashrate growth owes to more efficient ASICs<\/h2>\n<p>The researchers estimate Bitcoin miners\u2019 annual electricity consumption at 138 TWh. Since January 2021, that figure is up 111%, while hashrate has jumped 455%.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"692\" height=\"409\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report.pdf-Google-Chrome-pdf.jpg\" alt=\"2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report.pdf-Google-Chrome\" class=\"wp-image-257776\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data: CCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The gap reflects improving hardware efficiency that accelerated in the ASIC era. By end-2024, the global fleet averaged 23.7 J\/TH.<\/p>\n<p>Latest-generation models already deliver 12 J\/TH, with chips rated at <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitdeer-reports-9-7-j-th-efficiency-in-new-mining-chip-tests\">10 J\/TH<\/a> slated for 2025, the authors note.<\/p>\n<p>They describe the market for new miners as an oligopoly. By their estimates, Bitmain (82%), MicroBT (15%) and Canaan (2.1%) almost entirely control it. The firmware segment is more fragmented.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report.pdf2_-pdf.jpg\" alt=\"2025-04-cambridge-digital-mining-industry-report.pdf2_\" class=\"wp-image-257777\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data: CCAF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Data: CCAF.<\/p>\n<p>CoinShares estimates that by end-2024 Canaan had <a href=\"https:\/\/coinshares.com\/en\/d\/insights\/research-data\/2025-outlook\/\">dropped out<\/a> of that trio. Its place was taken by Bitdeer of former Bitmain CEO Jihan Wu, with a 7% share, the same as MicroBT.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Environmental harm is contested<\/h2>\n<p>CCAF calculates mining-related annual CO\u2082 emissions at 39.8 million tonnes\u2014about 0.08% of the global total and roughly Slovakia\u2019s level. Most survey participants said they take steps to offset their climate impact.<\/p>\n<p>They add roughly 2,300 tonnes of electronic waste from retired miners in 2024. Companies said a significant share of used equipment is resold on the secondary market or recycled.<\/p>\n<p>In an April study, researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-miners-in-the-us-accused-of-air-pollution-with-particulates\">accused bitcoin mining<\/a> of adding to airborne particulate pollution.<\/p>\n<p>They found that even when equipment is connected solely to clean sources, overall electricity demand rises. Reserve capacity\u2014owing to technological constraints, typically gas and coal\u2014then responds. As a result, harmful emissions increase, often in regions far from the data centres.<\/p>\n<p>In comments to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblock.co\/post\/352332\/cambridge-university-bitcoin-mining-sustainable-energy-use-elon-musk-tesla-btc-payments\">The Block<\/a>, mining-sustainability expert Daniel Batten called the methodology \u201cdeeply flawed\u201d. In his view, the conclusions were tailored so that Bitcoin mining \u201cwould look bad\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThis paper is a throwback to an earlier generation of academic work that used imperfect methodologies and cherry-picked data \u2014 an approach that Sai and Vranken <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2096720923000441\">debunked<\/a> in 2023. Policymakers and regulators should not take it seriously,\u201d Batten said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Digital Asset Research Institute also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.da-ri.org\/rebuttal\/rebuttal-dominici-et-al-2025\">rebutted the findings<\/a> of the Harvard scholars. It highlighted:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>excessive reliance on non-scientific sources (mostly news reports);<\/li>\n<li>ignoring major energy trackers;<\/li>\n<li>methodological gaps;<\/li>\n<li>misattribution of emissions;<\/li>\n<li>selective use of data and other inaccuracies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the US Senate, lawmakers <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-senate-to-deliberate-on-bill-to-reduce-emissions-from-miners\">introduced a bill<\/a> setting regional emissions limits for cryptocurrency-mining facilities and AI-serving data centres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The share of sustainable energy in Bitcoin mining has reached 52.4%, up from 37.6% in 2022, according to a report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). Of that, 42.6% comes from renewables and 9.8% from nuclear. The share of natural gas rose from 25% to 38.2%, while coal fell from 36.6% to 8.9%. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1137,1259,1150],"class_list":["post-23518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-ecology","tag-news-plus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"148","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}