Iceland’s national electricity company Landsvirkjun has cut the amount of electricity it will supply to several industries, including aluminum smelters and bitcoin miners.
A spokesperson for the island’s power plant said he was forced to cut the amount of electricity allocated to bitcoin miners in the southwest and several factories due to a number of issues, including a power plant problem, low water tanks, and electricity generation from an external supplier.
The mining industry has long been attracted to the country due to the abundance of geothermal energy, which is used to create cheap and abundant renewable energy sources. But from Dec 7 for an unknown period, any new electricity requests from mining will be rejected, Landsvirkyun said.
Canadian companies Hive Blockchain Technologies, Genesis Mining and Bitfury Holding are among the three largest Bitcoin miners to open businesses in Iceland.
For nearly a decade, miners have been trying to fulfill the promise of green bitcoin mining in Iceland. In 2013, Cloud Hashing moved 100 miners to Iceland. In November 2017, the Austrian HydroMiner GmbH raised about $ 2.8 million in its first coin offer (ICO) to install mining rigs directly in Icelandic power plants.
Less than 1% of the country’s electricity is generated from non-renewable sources.
Related Topics: UN COP26 Climate Change Goals Include New Technologies and Carbon Taxes
The country’s aluminum industry has been hit hardest by the distribution disruption. Aluminum prices rose 1.1% on December 7, reflecting the supply bottleneck caused by the recent spike in demand and the current supply shortage.
Globally, green blockchain initiatives are gaining popularity in 2021. Thought leaders at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland discussed energy-intensive Bitcoin mining. The conference launched the GloCha United Citizens Organization (UCO) on Action to Address Climate Change. Blockchain technology will be used to promote climate change.
