To understand why China is cracking down on power use by bitcoin miners, have a look at curtailment. The practice — where producers of wind and solar power cease generation because the entire electricity system is oversupplied — has been a major problem for the country in recent years. In the northwestern provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu, as much as one-third of wind generation and a quarter of solar was curtailed in the first half of 2017, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Fossil-fuel generating plants have been idle for more than half of the time, and across all fuels, utilisation rates have barely broken above 12 hours a day since 2014. Amid this glut, bitcoin has been a boon for generators. Performing the code-cracking that creates the cryptocurrency requires vast amounts of electricity: between 8.27 and 37.22 terawatt-hours a year, close to the power consumption of Estonia or Peru, depending on whose sums you believe. That means the world’s digital-currency miners have ...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.