Bitcoin Miners Could Cut Global Emissions by 8.5%

Climate tech investor Daniel Batten claims that Bitcoin mining could play a significant role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. According to him, widespread deployment of miners at oil fields and landfills could cut methane emissions by as much as 8.5%. This estimate comes from his own modeling.

Batten argues that miners can utilize stranded methane, which would otherwise be flared or escaped at these sites, to generate electricity for their operations. He notes that Bitcoin mining equipment can operate directly beside the energy source and that electricity accounts for more than 80% of miner cash operating costs.

A Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance study found that 3.3% of surveyed Bitcoin miners' electricity came from flared gas, representing about 48% of global computing power. The report estimated annual Bitcoin mining emissions at 39.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent before adjustments and reduced it to 37.6 million tonnes under a scenario where gas used by miners would have been flared.

Batten suggests that landfills could provide a larger opportunity for reducing methane emissions, as researchers found that mining revenue can improve project economics at sites where conventional landfill gas projects struggle to make financial sense.