Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, stated that bitcoin mining companies consume about 2,100 megawatts of the state’s energy supply. Bracher said that energy use rose 75 percent last year.
“There are some challenges ahead for the bitcoin mining industry,” Bracher added, noting that his group has recently witnessed the bankruptcy of two prominent exchanges and other miners scaling back expansion.
The industry also faces new federal regulations, including a proposed 30 percent tax on electricity use in digital mining, and calls from the US Treasury Secretary and the Commodities Regulatory Authority for a regulatory framework.
New York this year imposed a ban on some crypto-currency mining operations that rely on energy generated from fossil fuels. Other states are expected to follow suit.
But in Texas, some counties have introduced tax incentives and continue to lure mining companies into wind and solar power.
“Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive business, which is why places like West Texas are full of energy,” said Matt Prusak, chief commercial officer of the US cryptocurrency mining company Bitcoin, which has one of its mining operations at a 280-megawatt wind farm in Texas. Bitcoin mining companies.
The corporation’s site in McKamey, Texas, last month consumed 173,000 megawatts of power per hour, about 60 percent of it from the grid and about 40 percent from a nearby wind farm. The average American home uses about 10 megawatt hours per year, according to the Energy Information Administration.
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