Natural gas is currently in high demand from Bitcoin mining companies and AI data center operators. According to Mohamed El-Masri, a managing partner at Hodler Investments and CEO of tokenized energy trading platform PermianChain, recapturing energy from gas flaring could be a $16 billion opportunity.
The executive said that much of the current demand for gas could be filled by converting natural gas from gas-flaring, which is a form of stranded energy, into convertible energy for mining operations and high-performance computing. El-Masri told Cointelegraph:
"147,000,000,000m³ of natural gas is flared per year globally, which could be equivalent to $16 billion a year in potential sales revenue or cash flow from this gas being sold into the market."
“Bitcoin mining has proven to 12x the gas valuation or the equivalent price per MCF or MMBtu or whatever metric each country uses,” the executive explained. Converting stranded energy into a financial asset highlights the power of crypto mining and real-world asset tokenization in promoting sustainability.
Mitigating gas flaring through Bitcoin is more efficient than using other methods to limit emissions. Source: K33 Research, Arcane
Bitcoin mining unlocks stranded energy and renewables
Faced with a steadily increasing hashrate and computing difficulty, Bitcoin miners consistently search for novel and underused forms of energy to power their operations at low costs and remain competitive.
In May, mining company MARA, formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, announced a partnership with the government of Kenya to develop the country's renewable energy sector.
According to the International Trade Administration (ITA), geothermal energy and hydroelectric power account for 41% and 30% of the African country’s renewables, respectively.
A peer-reviewed scientific paper, titled An integrated landfill gas-to-energy and Bitcoin mining framework, was published in August, highlighting how Bitcoin mining can convert stranded energy to economic value.
The paper argued that Bitcoin miners can use landfill-gas-to-energy systems to convert methane gas into electricity for their mining operations. This would sequester the harmful gas from the atmosphere while providing a low-cost and attractive energy source for the miners.
Conversion of stranded energy by miners also works in reverse. In June 2022, MARA announced it was heating an entire town in Finland using excess recycled heat from its Bitcoin mining facility.
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