Environmental Considerations

What you'll learn

• The Real Numbers: Cambridge 2025
• The Energy Mix: 52.4% Sustainable
• Methane Mitigation: The Surprising Climate Story
• Grid Balancing and the Texas Story
• Putting the Numbers in Perspective
• For Deeper Reading

Key terms

CBECI (Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index)

The peer-reviewed index from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance estimating global Bitcoin electricity consumption. February 2025: ~20.01 GW power demand, 175.44 TWh annualized.

Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report

The April 2025 Cambridge report estimating ~138 TWh/year electricity consumption, 39.8 Mt CO2e annual emissions, and ~0.78% of global electricity consumption from Bitcoin mining.

Sustainable energy share

The percentage of mining electricity from non-fossil sources. Cambridge 2025: 52.4% sustainable (42.6% renewables — hydro 23.4%, wind 15.4%, solar 3.2% — plus 9.8% nuclear), up from 37.6% in 2022.

Stranded energy

Electricity generated where it cannot be economically transported to consumers (remote hydro, off-grid renewables) or wasted as a byproduct (flared methane). Bitcoin miners can monetize this otherwise-wasted energy.

Methane mitigation mining

Bitcoin mining at oil-well or landfill sites that captures and combusts methane (CH4) that would otherwise be vented or flared. Net climate impact can be carbon-negative.

Flared gas

Natural gas burned at oil wells because there is no infrastructure to transport it. Bitcoin mining can use flared gas as a feedstock, more efficiently combusting methane than open flaring.

Demand response

A grid-management practice in which large electricity consumers reduce or interrupt consumption on short notice in exchange for payment. Bitcoin miners are uniquely well-suited as demand-response participants.

ERCOT

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas — Texas's grid operator. Its deregulated market and high wind capacity have made Texas a major center for Bitcoin mining and grid-balancing partnerships.

CO2-equivalent (CO2e)

A unit that converts emissions of various greenhouse gases into the equivalent quantity of CO2 with the same warming effect. Methane, for example, is ~80x more warming than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe.

Curtailment

The deliberate reduction of renewable energy output (wind, solar) when supply exceeds grid demand. Mining is one of the most flexible sinks for what would otherwise be curtailed renewable energy.

Crusoe Energy

A pioneering company (operating since 2018) that deploys mobile Bitcoin mining containers directly to oil wells to consume otherwise-flared methane.

Energy mix

The proportion of different energy sources (coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, wind, solar, etc.) used to generate electricity for a given activity. Bitcoin's mix has shifted measurably toward renewables and nuclear since 2022.