A recent report has found that the mining of Bitcoin consumes less electricity than that of all of the refrigerators and televisions in the U.S.
The report produced by BitStacker also found that Bitcoin mining consumes up to 19 times less energy than air conditioning, and it consumes less electricity than a variety of industrial activities such as chemical production and the mining of precious metals.
The study was based on energy consumption estimates provided by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, and it shows that Bitcoin mining is not as energy-intensive as a range of household products and industrial activities.
Impact on the perceptions of Bitcoin’s energy usage
As of the latest available data, Bitcoin mining was estimated to have consumed 116 TWh per year which is a mere fraction of the 2,199 TWh consumed by air conditioning over the same period. The energy consumption of refrigerators and televisions in the US was 164 TWh which again exceeds the amount of electricity consumed when mining Bitcoin.
The mining of cryptocurrency was also much less energy-intensive than several major industrial activities such as the production of chemicals, iron and steel, and paper and pulp. The cryptocurrency also used less energy to mine compared to the mining of precious metals such as copper and gold.
Kris Lucas, BitStacker.com analyst said: “Bitcoin mining has earned a negative reputation for having a harmful environmental impact. However, this study has revealed that Bitcoin mining uses just a fraction of the energy compared to a variety of industrial sectors and home appliances. This shows that it’s not just Bitcoin miners that need to make an effort to minimize the environmental impact of their activities.”