Iceland will use more energy mining Bitcoin than powering its homes in 2018.
That's according to Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, a spokesperson for Icelandic power firm HS Orka. As reported by the BBC, Sigurbergsson says the country faces an "exponential" rise in Bitcoin mining that'll exceed the electricity use of Iceland's homes this year. (As detailed in the linked article above, cryptocurrency mining uses vast processing power in order to solve complex maths problems—in turn using substantial amounts of electricity.)
Iceland's population is 340,000, and, according to Sigurbergsson, the recent flurry of interest in crypto mining means it'll struggle to support all of its proposed projects.
"If all these projects are realised, we won't have enough energy for it," Sigurbergsson tells the BBC. "What we're seeing now is... you can almost call it exponential growth, I think, in the [energy] consumption of data centres."
Sigurbergsson continues, saying Bitcoin mining data centres will demand around 840 gigawatt hours of electricity; while homes require around 700 gigawatt hours per year.
"I don't see it stopping quite yet," says Sigurbergsson. "I'm getting a lot of calls, visits from potential investors or companies wanting to build data centres in Iceland."
According to the BBC, Sigurbergsson suggests his firm plans to combat the prospective power shortage by partnering with long-term data centre investors in multi-year deals.
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