Bitcoin Mining Electricity Consumption Surges 38% to 190 TWh as Industry Shifts to Renewable Energy Sources

Jul 23, 2026

Bitcoin mining's annualized power consumption surged 38% to 190 TWh in December 2025, driven by network expansion that outpaced hardware efficiency gains. However, associated emissions rose by a slower 20% to 48 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent as the industry's low-carbon energy share reached 59.4%, with hydropower overtaking natural gas as the primary power source. While miners expand in hydro-rich regions like Paraguay and Ethiopia, or test waste-methane pilots in Utah, a parallel shift is underway as firms increasingly explore redirecting their scarce power capacity toward AI infrastructure.

Bitcoin mining renewable energy shift

▪Hydropower has overtaken natural gas as the largest single energy source for Bitcoin mining, helping push the low-carbon share of the network's power mix to 59.4% in December 2025, up from 52.4% in June 2024.
▪Preliminary research from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance indicates that Bitcoin mining's annualized electricity consumption rose 38% from 138 TWh in June 2024 to approximately 190 TWh in December 2025.
▪Marathon Digital and Nodal Power launched a 280 kW landfill methane-powered Bitcoin mining pilot project in Utah to test the operational viability of off-grid waste gas as a low-cost power source.
▪Estimated annual greenhouse-gas emissions from Bitcoin mining rose 20% from approximately 40 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent in June 2024 to 48 million metric tons in December 2025.

Paraguay hydropower mining expansion

▪Paraguay represents approximately 4.3% of the global Bitcoin hashrate, or roughly 43 EH/s, making it the fourth-largest mining jurisdiction behind the United States, Russia, and China.
▪HIVE Digital acquired Bitfarms' 200 MW hydro-powered Yguazu site in Paraguay in March 2025 and signed a further 100 MW expansion in October 2025, targeting a total Paraguay capacity of 400 MW by the third quarter of 2026.
▪Paraguay's state utility, ANDE, signed a memorandum of understanding with Morphware in March 2026 to explore a pilot program that redeploys confiscated illegal mining rigs at utility-controlled substation sites.

Cambridge mining electricity data

▪Bitcoin's mining difficulty fell 0.74% at block height 959616 in July 2026, marking the network's 15th difficulty adjustment and ninth reduction of the year as miners redirect power capacity toward AI infrastructure.
▪The updated Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance survey found that only 10% of surveyed Bitcoin miners have allocated power to AI or accelerated computing, though over 40% of the remainder are actively exploring it.
▪The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance's April 2025 Digital Mining Industry Report surveyed 49 mining firms across 23 countries, representing approximately 48% of global mining activity.

ESG institutional investment barriers

▪Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment screens remain a key barrier to institutional Bitcoin acceptance among pension funds, family offices, and committee-led investment pools.
▪U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.32 billion in net inflows in March 2026, marking their first positive month of inflows since October 2025.

MiCA climate disclosure requirements

▪The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) frames its crypto climate disclosure guidance around energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, and waste generation.
▪Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, the European Union requires crypto-asset service providers to disclose the principal adverse environmental and climate impacts of their consensus mechanisms.