Roeck Martin, Drennen Thomas
Department of Economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 300 Pulteney St, Geneva, NY USA.
Int J Life Cycle Assess. 2022;27(3):355-365. doi: 10.1007/s11367-022-02025-0. Epub 2022 Feb 28.
Due to its highly energy-intensive process, Bitcoin has attracted the global attention of climate research and media. At the time of this submission, behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining has gained significant traction; however, not a single environmental impact assessment has been conducted on this type of operation. This study seeks to fill the gap, applying the established Life Cycle Assessment methodology to estimate the environmental footprint of a single case study.
A life cycle assessment methodology of a natural gas power plant mining Bitcoin behind-the-meter in the state of New York following the ISO 14040 guidelines was applied. The functional unit (FU) is defined as the attributed generation capacity of 14 MW over the course of a regular full-calendar year in the attributional model. The FU is scaled to 22 MW and 104 MW in the predictive models to represent planned expansion. The TRACI 2.1 method was applied to characterize the environmental impact. The environmental impact categories considered in this study included global warming, acidification, smog formation, and particulate emissions.
Located in New York State, Greenidge LLC, a natural gas power plant produces an estimated 88,440 metric tons of CO-eq per year to mine Bitcoin behind-the-meter. Annual emissions would total 656,983 metric tons of CO-eq if the plant devotes 100% of its generation to Bitcoin mining. The primary driver of greenhouse gas emissions is the generation of electricity itself, accounting for ~ 79% of the total emissions. At full capacity, annual emissions are comparable to the annual emissions of 140,000 passenger vehicles or the emissions resulting from the burning of 600 million lb of coal. Further, additional planned cases could produce an estimated 1.9 million tons tCO-eq per annum.
Behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining makes the power plant a significant contributor to global warming at a time when New York State is attempting to radically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050 and to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. The environmental impact of this business model is not limited to individual sites but is spread out over upstream impacts as well. In combination, we see that behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining not only goes against local climate initiatives but also poses a significant danger to national initiatives due to feasible scalability, caused by an availability of existing infrastructure and favorable financials.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11367-022-02025-0.
由于比特币的生产过程能源密集度极高，它已引起气候研究领域和媒体的全球关注。在提交本文时，厂内比特币挖矿已获得显著关注；然而，尚未对这类运营进行过任何环境影响评估。本研究旨在填补这一空白，运用既定的生命周期评估方法来估算一个案例研究的环境足迹。
采用遵循ISO 14040指南的纽约州一家天然气发电厂厂内挖矿的生命周期评估方法。在归因模型中，功能单位（FU）定义为常规完整日历年内14兆瓦的归属发电容量。在预测模型中，将功能单位按比例调整为22兆瓦和104兆瓦以代表计划中的扩张。应用TRACI 2.1方法来描述环境影响。本研究中考虑的环境影响类别包括全球变暖、酸化、烟雾形成和颗粒物排放。
位于纽约州的格林吉奇有限责任公司是一家天然气发电厂，其厂内比特币挖矿每年估计产生88,440公吨二氧化碳当量。如果该厂将100%的发电量用于比特币挖矿，年排放量将总计656,983公吨二氧化碳当量。温室气体排放的主要驱动因素是电力生产本身，占总排放量的约79%。满负荷运行时，年排放量相当于140,000辆乘用车的年排放量或燃烧6亿磅煤炭产生的排放量。此外，计划中的其他案例估计每年可能产生190万吨二氧化碳当量。
在纽约州试图到2050年将其温室气体排放量大幅减少85%并到2040年实现100%无碳电力供应之际，厂内比特币挖矿使该发电厂成为全球变暖的重要贡献者。这种商业模式的环境影响不仅限于个别场地，还会延伸到上游影响。综合来看，我们发现厂内比特币挖矿不仅违背当地气候倡议，而且由于现有基础设施的可用性和有利的财务状况导致其具有可行的可扩展性，对国家倡议也构成重大危险。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s11367 - 022 - 02025 - 0获取的补充材料。
