Bitcoin mining has taken over an abandoned power station in Greenidge. The Finger Lakes environmental protection group have begun to protest and show their complaints about this use of the facilities.
The power plant is located near Seneca Lake in New York called Greenidge, it was inaugurated in 1937 and closed in 2009. It was sold to its current owners in 2014, and it was not until 2019 that they began to use it to mine cryptocurrencies. This move has not pleased the Finger Lakes environmental group, which fears that this will lead to increased energy consumption and that other power plants will follow suit.
[amazon box=»B0774QCYWH» title=»Bitcoin Physical Currency» star_rating=»none» template=»table»]Concern about consumption and energy shortages
New York Focus reported a few days ago that the current owners of the Greenidge power plant plan to quadruple their energy consumption to process Bitcoin transactions by the end of 2022. This consumption is one of the points that most concerns the Finger environment protection group. Lakes.
The New York Focus report explained that Greenidge's greenhouse gas emissions were well below the plant's annual allowance of 641,000 tons of CO2 equivalent. But as consumption increased due to Bitcoin transaction processing throughout 2020, its 12-month average greenhouse gas emissions rose tenfold, from 28,000 tons in January to 243,000 tons in December.
Another of the environmental group's fears is the access that the Greenidge plant has to maintain its mining farm, which could increase the value of electricity to nearby towns. They also fear that other exchanges may follow suit and enter the cryptocurrency market. If so, electricity prices could rise and there could be widespread problems of energy shortages because producers prefer to prioritize cryptocurrency mining.
Source: Tom's Hardware
