Texas saw some harsh winter weather in 2021 and the storms caused massive electricity failure across the state. Over 100 Texans died because of storm related power outages and those outages impacted millions of businesses and homes in the region.
Many were left without power for several days and it exposed the vulnerability of the system overall.
Officials declared that they were going to address the problem and do something about it. And now it looks like bitcoin miners are also helping to solve the problem too.
To fix power grid issues in Texas some have suggested introducing bitcoin miners to be flexible buyers that can help to sustain some balance for supply and demand of that energy.
Not only have bitcoin miners been proposed as a solution to help with power grid issues but it has also been suggested that Texas is becoming the bitcoin capital of the country. A number of bitcoin miners have moved here in recent years, it is one of the most popular spots in the U.S. for mining bitcoin along with other regions like NY, GA, and Kentucky.
Bitcoin miners have been heating homes in some regions of the world already and it is expected that in the future we might also see more of this.
Texas mining might soon represent as much as 20% of worldwide bitcoin mining by the end of next year.
The quicker this gets embraced and we see success from it then other regions around the world might look to do the same to reap the same sort of value from this arrangement.
But while there are discussions of Texas becoming the next bitcoin mining capital and possibly helping solve grid issues, there are also concerns on the opposite side of the spectrum about the increase in demand from that mining migration and worries that it is miners who pose the next threat to the Texas grid.
sources:
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/one-texas-storm-exposed-energy-grid-unprepared-climate-change-rcna289
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/04/bitcoin-miners-say-theyre-fixing-texas-electric-grid-ted-cruz-agrees.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/09/war-to-attract-bitcoin-miners-pits-texas-against-new-york-kentucky.html
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2019/08/23/bitcoin-miners-are-heating-homes-free-of-charge-in-frigid-siberia/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-19/texas-plans-to-become-the-u-s-bitcoin-capital-can-its-grid-ercot-handle-it
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2021/12/05/as-the-rest-of-texas-frets-about-power-outages-denton-adds-bitcoin-mining-to-the-grid/