Bitcoin mining is the industry with the most use of renewable energy, according to a study

Bitcoin mining is the industrial sector that uses the most energy from renewable sources today. This is stated in a report published by researcher and analyst Daniel Batten on the Batcoinz.com website.

He article de Batten specifies that, as of today, 52.6% of the Bitcoin mining industry runs on clean energy. In addition, between July 2019 and June 2023, the use of this type of energy by miners grew by 38%. This makes Bitcoin mining the leader in this statistic compared to other business sectors.

Banking is the closest competitor to Bitcoin mining when it comes to the use of renewable energy. According to the Batten report, 39.2% of this sector uses renewable energy sources for its operation.

The researcher assumes that 100% of the energy used by banks worldwide comes from the traditional electrical network, so he assigned the same values ​​that are reflected globally.

Sectors such as industry, agriculture and gold, 32%, 19% and 12% (respectively) depend on renewable energy sources. While less than 10% of those who participate in the iron, steel and zinc recycling industries use clean energy.

Criticism about the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin mining has been the subject of a number of criticisms and accusations from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, which accuse it of being one of the main responsible for the acceleration of climate change in recent years.

CriptoNoticias reported at the time the launch of the “Cleanup Bitcoin” campaign (which translated into Spanish means “Let’s clean Bitcoin”). A Greenpeace initiative that was intended to cause the consensus algorithm of the Bitcoin network to be changed so that this cryptocurrency could not be mined.

Data mining is the mechanism used by the proof of work (PoW) to provide security to this network, since it allows verifying that the transactions carried out on it comply with the protocol. In addition, this mechanism allows the issuance of new coins.

The electric car manufacturer Tesla and its co-founder, Elon Musk, have also been spokesmen for the slogan that points to Bitcoin mining as a high energy consumer produced by means of fossil fuels.

In May 2021, Musk announced that Tesla would no longer accept bitcoin as a means of payment and confessed to being “concerned” about the carbon footprint that Bitcoin mining was generating. However, Musk himself joined Michael Saylor that month to form the Bitcoin Green Mining Council.

Despite these types of remarks, the data presented by Batten in his report shows that Bitcoin mining has the potential to promote the use of clean energyeven to a greater degree than other sectors of the industry.