Sustainable energy usage for BTC mining grows nearly 60% in a year

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies are further adopting green energy as the global Bitcoin mining industry increased its sustainable energy mix by approximately 59% year over year.

The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) is group of 44 Bitcoin mining companies claiming to represent 50% of the global Bitcoin network, or 100.9 exahash (EH). It released a new report on Monday April 25 with the findings. The group is also fronted by Bitcoin proponent and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor.

The latest survey of BMC member companies questioned how much electricity their companies consumed, what percentage of that electricity is generated by hydro, wind, solar, nuclear or geothermal sources, and what the hash rate of their operations were.

The BMC estimates the global mining industry’s sustainable electricity mix for the top crypto is now 58.4% which is a fall of 0.1% from last quarter. Perhaps more importantly, its significant growth from the 36.8% renewables estimated in Q1 2021.

Its worth noting however that the BMC only formed in June 2021, so it is not exactly clear how they formulated the 36.8% worth of renewables estimated in Q1 2021.

Data which was self-reported from BMC members showed they were utilizing electricity with a 64.6% sustainable power mix, the estimates for global Bitcoin mining was based on the data from BMC members.

Related: Earth Day analysts say Bitcoin mining is naturally gravitating to green energy

Bitcoin has come under fire for its heavy energy usage and high carbon footprint, and the mining industry is keen to show its adoption of using greener energy sources or byproduct wasted from other operations to combat the criticism.

The figures provided by BMC contradict a February study published in the scientific journal