Cryptocurrency Mining Energy Consumption Statistics 2026: TWh and Mix

Bitcoin mining uses an estimated 138 TWh (terawatt-hours), or about 0.5% of global consumption, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF). Its survey puts the use of sustainable energy sources for Bitcoin mining at 52.4%. Other models land higher: Digiconomist’s live index reads 204.44 TWh, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) expected cryptocurrency demand to reach around 160 TWh by 2026. Those gaps shape every set of cryptocurrency mining energy consumption statistics below.

The pressure has also moved from global averages to local grids. In Texas, ERCOT was tracking approximately 226 GW of large loads requesting interconnection by late 2025, and cryptocurrency mining accounted for 9% of the total (i.e., approximately 20 GW). The sections that follow cover the energy mix, emissions, national and Texas grid load, hardware efficiency, what public miners pay for power, and the long-range outlook.

Key Takeaways

• Natural gas became the single largest source for Bitcoin miners at 38.2% (up from 25.0% in 2022), replacing coal, according to Cambridge survey data.
• Coal’s share collapsed to 8.9%, down from 36.6% in 2022.
• The 52.4% use of sustainable energy sources compares to a 2022 estimate of 37.6% overall sustainable energy use.
• Miners in the Cambridge survey report a median electricity cost of $45/MWh, and electricity makes up more than 80% of their cash-based operational expenses.
• Per MARA’s second-quarter shareholder letter, its purchased energy cost per BTC was $38,690 at owned sites in Q2 2026, with a cost per kWh of $0.04.
• Ethereum’s switch to proof of stake cut its annualized electricity consumption by more than 99.988%.

Editor’s Choice

• Digiconomist annual estimate: 204.44 TWh, comparable to the power consumption of Thailand.
• Cambridge emissions estimate: approximately 39.8 MtCO2e, representing about 0.08% of global annual GHG emissions.
• U.S. share of reported mining: the US at 75.4% of total reported Bitcoin mining activity.
• U.S. electricity range for 2024: approximately 25 TWh to 100 TWh, per Congressional Research Service figures.
• ERCOT pause threshold: approvals paused for virtual currency mining facilities (crypto facilities) that are 75 MW or greater.
• IEA 2022 baseline: cryptocurrencies consumed about 110 TWh of electricity, accounting for 0.4% of the global annual electricity demand.

Cryptocurrency Mining Energy Consumption Statistics: Global Estimates

• Cambridge’s 138 TWh estimate represents a YoY increase of 17% and approximately 0.54% of global electricity consumption.
• The Cambridge survey data represents 48% of global mining activity.
• The IEA estimated that Bitcoin consumed 120 TWh by 2023, contributing to a total cryptocurrency electricity demand of 130 TWh.
• The IEA’s 2022 crypto total was as much as the Netherlands’ total electricity consumption.
• Digiconomist compares its Bitcoin figure to the power use of Thailand, while its carbon estimate of 114.03 Mt CO2 is comparable to the carbon footprint of the Czech Republic.

Source: Digiconomist 2026, IEA Electricity 2024, Cambridge CCAF 2025

How much electricity does crypto mining consume?

Bitcoin mining alone uses an estimated 138 TWh (terawatt-hours), or about 0.5% of global consumption, per Cambridge’s survey-based model. Other trackers run higher, so the defensible answer is a range rather than one number.

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About This Data

• Sources: 21 sourced figures from 11 publishers, 16 from primary sources (U.S. agencies, the IEA, ERCOT, company filings) and 5 from research (Cambridge research, Digiconomist, ethereum.org).
• Window: publications from 2024 to September 2026.
• Selection: primary or original-research sources only, updated as those sources publish new editions.

Bitcoin Mining Renewable Energy Percentage

• Renewables alone account for 42.6% of the electricity miners reported.
• Nuclear adds 9.8% to reach the sustainable total.
• Fossil fuels make up 47.6% of the reported mix.
• The Cambridge survey involving 49 digital mining firms, of which 41% are publicly listed, supplied the data.
• Participants had headquarters in 16 different jurisdictions, with operations spanning 23 countries.

Recent Developments

• August 3, 2026: ERCOT issued a Market Notice pausing the Batch Zero study process and paused approvals to energize data centers or virtual currency mining facilities (crypto facilities) that are 75 MW or greater.
• August 20, 2026: The Commission granted all three requests for good cause exceptions that ERCOT filed.
• Under the August 3, 2026 directive from Governor Abbott, ERCOT conditionally classified 204 projects (66.4 GW) as base load and 158 projects (127.9 GW) as studied load.
• August 2026: CleanSpark produced 593 bitcoin with an average operating hashrate of 38.3 EH/s and 808 MW utilized.
• August 31, 2026: CleanSpark reported conditional classification by ERCOT for 585 MW of contracted capacity to receive batch zero baseload designation and 300 MW to receive batch zero studied load designation.
• Q2 2026: MARA’s energized hashrate increased 22% to 70.3 EH/s as its purchased energy cost per bitcoin climbed.

Bitcoin Mining Energy Mix by Source

• Hydropower constitutes the largest sustainable source (23.4%) in the survey.
• Wind follows at 15.4%, with solar at 3.2%.
• Oil contributes 0.5% of the reported electricity.

Natural Gas Replaced Coal in Bitcoin Mining

• Natural gas has replaced coal (now 8.9%, down from 36.6% in 2022) as the single largest energy source used in Bitcoin mining.
• Gas rose by 13.2 percentage points between the 2022 estimate and the 2024 survey.
• Coal fell by 27.7 percentage points over the same comparison.
• The sustainable share gained 14.8 percentage points.

Why it matters: In Cambridge’s survey, natural gas, at 38.2% (up from 25.0% in 2022), has replaced coal (now 8.9%, down from 36.6% in 2022). Much of the cleaner mix came from trading one fossil fuel for a lower-carbon one rather than leaving fossil power, so emissions improved faster than fossil dependence did.

Bitcoin Mining Carbon Emissions

• Cambridge’s nuanced analysis suggests a potential range of 32.9 to 37.6 MtCO2e beneath its central estimate.
• Cambridge counts approximately 39.8 MtCO2e as its central figure, against a Digiconomist estimate nearly three times larger.
• Digiconomist’s index is higher because its electricity estimate is higher, at 204.44 TWh for the same network.

Source: Cambridge CCAF 2025, Digiconomist 2026

Is Bitcoin mining bad for the environment?

Bitcoin mining produces measurable emissions, estimated at approximately 39.8 MtCO2e, representing about 0.08% of global annual GHG emissions by Cambridge. The impact depends heavily on the local grid, so a miner on hydropower and one on coal generation carry very different footprints for the same hashrate.

U.S. Cryptocurrency Mining Electricity Consumption

• The EIA’s preliminary estimate says annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining probably represents from 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption.
• The EIA identified a total of 137 facilities, located in 21 states, with most in Texas, Georgia, and New York.
• Maximum electricity use at 101 of those facilities was estimated at 10,275 MW.
• The EIA’s top-down method assumed the share of global activity in the United States remained at approximately 38%.

Bitcoin Mining Electricity Use by Country

• The United States led in December 2021, when major Bitcoin mining pools were concentrated in the United States (38%), China (21%), and Kazakhstan (13%).
• In 2021, the Chinese government banned all cryptocurrency transactions, which caused an exodus of cryptocurrency miners to other countries, including the United States.
• In some countries, such as Iran and Kazakhstan, concerns over power reliability have resulted in other restrictions on mining.
• The shift after China’s ban is traced in the history of Bitcoin mining, and the country ranking below reflects where the survey respondents run their machines.

Rules differ sharply across these markets, and the crypto mining regulations by country explain why power reliability now drives restrictions as often as climate policy does.

Texas ERCOT Large-Load Demand From Crypto Miners

• ERCOT treats large flexible loads as loads greater than 75 MW.
• In 2024, ERCOT was tracking large load requests totaling 63 GW, with many requests exceeding 1 GW per site by the end of 2025.
• Data centers dominate the queue, at approximately 73% of requests.
• ERCOT listed the conditional classifications in its Batch Zero update for board review.

By the numbers: ERCOT’s queue grew from large load requests totaling 63 GW in one year to approximately 226 GW of large loads requesting interconnection by December 2025. Crypto mining’s slice is small next to data centers, but its ability to curtail quickly makes it the flexible load grid planners watch most closely.

Bitcoin Mining Hardware Efficiency and E-Waste

• Industry-wide ASIC hardware efficiency is estimated at 28.2 J/TH as of mid-2024, per Cambridge, a 24% YoY improvement.
• Surveyed miners expected that by the end of 2024, 11.1% of the current hashrate (61.8 EH/s) is projected to be phased out.
• Miners reported a total load curtailment of 888 GWh for the calendar year 2023.
• Each efficiency gain lowers energy per hash, and the mechanics behind that are covered in how Bitcoin mining works.

Source: Cambridge CCAF 2025, CleanSpark August 2026

Electricity Costs for Bitcoin Miners

• MARA reported that purchased energy cost per bitcoin was $38,690, up from $33,735 in Q2 2025.
• Riot’s average cost to mine bitcoin, excluding depreciation, was $49,912 in the quarter, as compared to $48,992 a year earlier.
• Riot said the increase was primarily driven by higher power costs and the expansion at Riot’s Kentucky facilities.
• Riot explains that power curtailment credits are credited against our power invoices as a result of temporarily pausing our operations to participate in ERCOT’s Demand Response Service Programs.

Source: Cambridge CCAF 2025, MARA Q2 2026, Riot Platforms Q2 2026

Power is the lever that decides margins, which is why the crypto mining profitability data moves so closely with hash price and energy contracts.

Public Bitcoin Miner Hashrate and Power Capacity

• MARA mined 2,422 BTC in Q2 2026 on its energized fleet.
• After quarter-end, MARA secured the rights to a 2 GW-powered land site in Matagorda County, Texas, that would lift its portfolio up to 4.8 GW.
• CleanSpark held 1.8 GW under contract at the end of August 2026.
• Riot produced 1,587 bitcoin, as compared to 1,426 a year earlier.
• The largest listed miners now treat power as the asset, a shift visible in MARA’s push to expand its powered land portfolio.

Ethereum Energy Consumption After Proof of Stake

• The IEA found that Ethereum reduced its electricity demand by 99% in 2022 by changing its mining mechanism.
• The CCRI estimate of 2,601 MWh (0.0026 TWh) for the network’s annual electricity consumption corresponds to yearly carbon emissions of 870 tonnes CO2e.
• Ethereum’s carbon footprint was decreased by approximately 99.992% (from 11,016,000 to 870 tonnes CO2e).

Source: ethereum.org, CCRI 2022

Bitcoin Energy Use per Transaction, Water and E-Waste

• A single transaction’s Electrical Energy, 803.83 kWh, equals the power use of an average U.S. household over 27.55 days.
• Its carbon footprint of 448.34 kgCO2 matches 993,683 VISA transactions.
• Annual fresh water consumption of 3,222 GL is comparable to the total water use of Switzerland.
• Annual electronic waste of 20.82 kt is comparable to the small IT equipment waste of the Netherlands.

Source: Digiconomist Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, September 2026

Why Bitcoin Energy Estimates Differ

• Cambridge’s survey covered approximately 48% of the Bitcoin network’s hashrate, so its total extrapolates from half the network.
• The LBNL work cited by the CRS relied on CBECI data to provide lower- and upper-bound estimates rather than a single point.
• The gap between Digiconomist and Cambridge is 66.44 TWh a year.
• Survey figures reflect what disclosed firms report, while index models infer the whole network from assumptions, so the two answer slightly different questions. Both sit inside the broader cryptocurrency mining statistics that track hashrate and revenue.

Worth noting: Cambridge’s survey-based 138 TWh estimate rests on reported data, which represents 48% of global mining activity, while Digiconomist’s 204.44 TWh covers the whole network by model. Quoting either figure without its method overstates its certainty, so any comparison should name the model behind the number.

Cryptocurrency Mining Electricity Outlook to 2028

• The IEA’s base case said the electricity consumption of cryptocurrencies will increase by more than 40%, to around 160 TWh by 2026.
• The LBNL model found that for every $1,000 monthly increase in the price of Bitcoin, U.S. cryptocurrency mining energy consumption increased by 0.58 TWh.
• The scenarios indicate a potential increase in cryptocurrency electricity consumption in 2028, with consumption ranging from 60 TWh to 480 TWh.

Source: IEA Electricity 2024, Congressional Research Service 2026

Conclusion

Cambridge’s survey places Bitcoin mining at 138 TWh (terawatt-hours), or about 0.5% of global consumption, with a 52.4% use of sustainable energy sources. The cleaner mix owes more to natural gas displacing coal than to a clean break from fossil power, and the real pressure point has shifted from global totals to local grids like Texas, where regulators now verify large loads before they connect.

The next markers are the outcome of ERCOT’s verification process and the next Cambridge survey edition, which will show whether efficiency gains keep pace with network growth, a trend our Bitcoin network statistics also track.