The utilization of renewable energy in Bitcoin mining reached a major sustainable milestone by surpassing 52% of the total electricity usage during Q1 of 2025. The Digital Mining Industry Report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance reveals that Bitcoin‘s electricity consumption stands at 38.2% from natural gas but sustainable energy from hydropower and wind makes up a majority of its energy consumption.
Increased Efficiency Despite Higher Consumption
Bitcoin mining operations consumed 138 terawatts of power yearly leading to 39.8 million CO2 emissions during 2021 while making upapprox 0.08% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. ASIC efficiency across the Bitcoin computing industry reached 28.2 joules per terahash which represented a 24% increase over the previous annual statistics. A significant proportion of 86.9% decommissioned hardware has found either new uses or entered recycling channels.
North American Dominance
Bitcoin mining facilities in the United States maintain the highest global hash rate percentage reaching 75.4% with Canada taking the second spot at 7.1%. North America continues to be the leader over emerging mining operations which have started in South America and the Middle East. Bitmain dominates the hardware market through an 82% market share while the leading three manufacturers control almost 99% of all operations.
Economic Challenges and Adaptation
The operational expenses of miners are predominantly electrical costs which exceed 80% and their median electrical bill amounts to $45 per megawatt-hour. The market’s profitability has persisted after the halving thanks to power management strategies and efficiency improvements although margin compression happened. To reduce the impact of energy price volatility as well as regulatory uncertainty miners are following three main business strategies: geographical expansion and business diversification and power hedge implementation.
Renewable Energy Milestone
Cloud mining operations are making progress towards sustainable operation through climate protection activities which include 70.8% of the surveyed miners. Diversification of mining companies into high-performance computing operations focused on artificial intelligence programs along with waste heat recycling technology and demand response participation represents their current strategies. The entire industry is adopting these measures to minimize environmental harm while sustaining economic success in an intensifying market competition.
