According to Bloomberg, electricity usage from cryptocurrency mining operations in the United States could represent 0.6% to 2.3% of the country's total demand by 2023. The estimate suggests that the annual demand for electricity supporting crypto mining would be equivalent to the consumption of more than three million to six million homes. The growth in mining operations in the US can be attributed to an influx of companies relocating from China after the country banned the industry in May 2021. Over the past three years, numerous large-scale miners have gone public in the US, establishing operations in energy-rich states such as Texas and New York.
To date, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has identified 137 facilities in 21 states, with the majority located in Texas, Georgia, and New York. The agency used data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) and its own collected data for its calculations. According to the report, CBECI estimates put electricity supporting Bitcoin mining in 2023 at about 0.2% to 0.9% of global demand for electricity. Based on these estimates, global electricity use in cryptocurrency mining was roughly equivalent to the total consumption in Greece or Australia.
Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process, with miners using specialized computers to validate transactions on the blockchain and receive rewards in the form of tokens. The EIA plans to begin conducting a mandatory survey focused on systematically evaluating the electricity consumption associated with cryptocurrency mining activity. Data will be collected on a monthly basis from February through July.
