In 2024, Bitcoin mining facilities in the U.S. consumed over 20,800 GWh of electricity, which at the average commercial cost amounts to $2.7 billion. On a daily basis, $18.65 million is spent on BTC mining in the country.
Paul Hoffman, Analyst at Best Brokers, calculated that American miners use 862,635.55 kWh of electricity to mine 1 BTC, which at an average commercial cost of $0.1281 per kWh amounts to about $110,500. Prior to the Bitcoin network halving, the cost to mine 1 BTC was roughly half at $52,100. This year, 20,822.62 GWh of electricity, costing $2.7 billion, was spent on Bitcoin mining in the U.S.
Mining farms in the U.S. consume 145.6 million kWh daily. At the average cost of electricity, American miners spend $18.65 million each day. This amount of electricity enables the mining of 170.41 BTC, valued at around $11.6 million at the current rate. Thus, Bitcoin mining in the Unired States is unprofitable.
Hoffman also noted that at this consumption rate, 53,144 GWh of electricity, costing nearly $7 billion, would be spent on Bitcoin mining over a year. This amount of electricity would be enough to:
- charge all electric vehicles in the U.S. 223 times;
- power 5.1 million households for a year;
- charge 11.2 billion iPhones daily for a year;
- power Google’s entire infrastructure for 2 years and 4 months.
Hoffman also calculated the average daily energy costs for Bitcoin mining globally:
- total network hashrate: 606.59 EH/s;
- average efficiency: 26.41 J/TH;
- daily consumption: 384,481,670.41 kWh;
- daily production: 450 BTC;
- average amount of electricity required to mine 1 BTC: 854,403.71 kWh.
Globally, the U.S. ranks first in BTC production, providing 37.9% of the world’s hashrate. China ranks second with 21.1% of the global hashrate, despite local regulations severely limiting mining. Kazakhstan ranks third with 13.2% of the world’s hashrate. The highest proportion of electricity used for Bitcoin mining is in Kazakhstan and Ireland, accounting for 19.15% and 8.38% of the total electricity consumption in the country, respectively. On average, American miners mine 170.41 BTC per day, Chinese miners 95.09 BTC, and miners from Kazakhstan and Ireland 59.56 BTC and 8.87 BTC, respectively.
BTC mining profitability began to decline in 2022 amid a prolonged crypto winter. In 2023, miners started actively connecting to “green” energy sources to increase the environmental sustainability of their equipment. About 60% of the electricity for BTC mining began to come from renewable energy sources, and a large center for BTC mining based on a nuclear power plant was launched in the U.S. British scientists even suggested using quantum computing to increase the energy efficiency of mining.
