HomeCryptoMiningHeat wave puts miners in serious trouble in Texas

Heat wave puts miners in serious trouble in Texas

A new heat wave hits Texas, and cryptocurrency miners are feeling all the negative effects. 

Texas summer doesn’t seem like a good place for cryptocurrency miners

Mining requires a great deal of electricity consumption from the use of special machinery, which in turn produces heat. 

To avoid being overheated and to allow them to work at full capacity without problems, the surrounding environment should not be too hot

If this happens, to adequately cool ASICs and graphics cards, miners must resort to additional cooling systems, such as fans and air conditioners. 

However, these consume additional energy to that already required by the mining machines. As a result, miners will see their profit margins shrink, due to rising electricity costs

And this is precisely why many of the mining farms in the world choose to set up their operations in countries where temperatures are very low, or at least sustained, throughout the year. Thus, areas in Northern Europe, such as Denmark, Norway and Finland, and those in Canada, for example, are favored. 

In this way, miners will be able to save on costs associated with energy requirements, thereby increasing their profitability

Texas miners are forced to reduce operations

In recent days, electricity demand has exceeded the symbolic level of 80,000 MW (megawatts). 

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), an organization in the United States that manages and monitors the Texas power grid, has seen several records for the amount of electricity demanded, especially in July. 

This emergency situation has prompted ERCOT to ask local residents and businesses to reduce consumption as soon as possible, with more focus on mining farms. 

This is not the first time Texas has faced a similar situation. In fact, four months ago, ERCOT predicted a possible excess demand for energy, so much so that it required miners to obtain permission to connect to the state’s power grid.

Miners using renewable energy sources are more resilient to the current situation

Mining farms powered by sustainable energy are better able to withstand negative conditions

Most crypto mining farms that power their operations with sustainable electricity seem to suffer less from the overload of energy demand. 

Franck Holmes, CEO of Hive Blockchain Technology, explains that:

“Bitcoin and Ethereum mining farms are designed to use 100% renewable energy (solar and wind) which, even in the case of Texas, will not disrupt the state’s power grid”.

What is happening now can be seen as a kind of “natural selection” for the mining industry. Indeed, those who operate low-cost energy facilities, especially through the use of renewable energy sources, are more likely to survive these kinds of events or, as has happened, a considerable drop in cryptocurrency prices.

Eliano Martellucci
Eliano Martellucci
Eliano has a bachelor's degree in Economics and Business Administration and is about to complete his master's studies in Finance at the University of Trento (UNITN). He got hooked on the crypto and blockchain world during the summer of 2017 and has not left it since then. He currently works as editor & SEO specialist at Cryptonomist, writes articles and invests, both in Blue Chip and early stage assets. Furthermore, he is working on his latest thesis project entitled: "A Study on crypto market Sentiment Analysis through Machine Learning algorithms in python."
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