30 papers on showing Bitcoin mining's energy and environmental benefits. Probably nothing. Below is the full list with sources. But the TL;DR of findings is... Bitcoin mining stabilizes grids, obviates gas peaker plants, reduces Landfill emissions, reduces flare gas emissions, accelerates the clean energy adoption, obviates fossil fuel heat through heat recycling, makes battery/biofuel/solar projects more profitable Full list: 1. How Bitcoin Can Support Renewable Energy Development & Climate Action (Lal & You 2023) Journal: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (Impact Factor: 7.1) Findings: Bitcoin mining helps renewable developers generate more profits, accelerating the renewable transition Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c05445 2. Renewable Energy Transition Facilitated by Bitcoin (Velický 2023) Journal: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (Impact Factor: 7.1) Findings: "The opportunities offered by bitcoin mining in reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy transition are greater than generally assumed" Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c06077 3. Can bitcoin mining empower energy transition and fuel sustainable development goals in the US? (Lal et al. 2024) Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production (Impact factor: 9.7) Findings: Bitcoin mining with renewable energy is profitable in 96% of cases and is consistently more profitable than chemical-based utilization (hydrogen, ammonia, methanol). The "profits from bitcoin mining can empower energy transition." Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959652624002464 4. Rethinking bitcoin's energy use through sustainable digital business models and resources monetization (Dasaklis et al. 2025) Journal: Digital Business (Impact Factor: 7.4) Findings: Bitcoin mining can "promote cleaner energy use and reduce the carbon footprint of energy production." By using renewable or stranded sources, Bitcoin mining aligns "economic incentives with sustainability goals." Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666954425000092 5. Hedging Renewable Energy Investments with Bitcoin Mining (Bastian-Pinto et al. 2021) Journal: Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews (Impact Factor: 16.3) Findings: Bitcoin mining acts as a financial hedge against low electricity prices, significantly improving the economic viability and profitability of wind energy projects. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120308054 6. Robust Optimization for Energy-Aware Cryptocurrency Farm Location with Renewable Energy (Lotfi et al. 2023) Journal: Computers & Industrial Engineering (Impact Factor: 6.7) Findings: Presents an optimization model for strategically locating cryptocurrency mining facilities near renewable energy sources, minimizing costs and carbon footprints, thereby integrating mining operations sustainably into energy grids. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360835223000335 7. Renewable energy and cryptocurrency: A dual approach to economic viability and environmental sustainability (Hakimi et al. 2024) Journal: Heliyon (Impact factor: 3.4) Findings: Bitcoin mining reduces the ROI from 8.1yrs to 3.5yrs while reducing CO2 emissions by 50,000 tonnes/year on a typical 50MW solar farm. Profits from Bitcoin mining using renewable generation help accelerate the energy transition. PoS blockchains (such as Ethereum) can not offer these features. Source: https://cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(24)15796-9 8. Study on the Economics of Wind Energy Through Cryptocurrency (Vega-Marcos et al. 2022) Journal: Energy Reports (Impact Factor: 4.7) Findings: Co-locating Bitcoin mining operations with wind farms significantly improves economic viability by generating additional revenue during periods when the wind farm is not supplying power to the grid. Source: https://accedacris.ulpgc.es/handle/10553/119153 9. Techno-economic and Environmental Evaluations of a Novel Cogeneration System Based on Solar Energy and Cryptocurrency Mining (Nikzad & Mehregan 2022) Journal: Solar Energy (Impact Factor: 6.0) Findings: Combining crypto-mining with a typical "PV rooftop system can supply 83% of the consumed electricity of the mining system per year and prevent the annual emissions of 5.5 tCO2 to the atmosphere simultaneously." Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038092X22000172 10. Cryptocurrency mining as a novel virtual energy storage system in islanded and grid-connected microgrids (Hajiaghapour-Moghimi et al. 2024) Journal: International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems (Impact factor: 5) Findings: Microgrids (MGs) not using Bitcoin Mining waste significant renewable energy. However using Bitcoin mining stops almost all renewable waste reduces MG costs by 46%, accelerates MG development and decarbonizes power production Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142061524001364 11. Climate sustainability through a dynamic duo: Green hydrogen and crypto driving energy transition and decarbonization (Lal & You 2024) Journal: PNAS (Impact factor 9.4) Findings: Combining green hydrogen and Bitcoin can enable capacity expansions of up to 25.5% for solar power and 73.2% for wind powered operations. Source: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2313911121 12. Mining Bitcoins with Carbon Capture and Renewable Energy for Carbon Neutrality Across States in the USA (Niaz et al. 2022) Journal: Energy & Environmental Science (Impact Factor: 32.4) Findings: Integrating Bitcoin mining with direct air carbon capture and renewable energy has the potential to make Bitcoin mining carbon-neutral, depending on state-specific electricity grids. Source: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/ee/d1ee03804d 13. The Feasibility Study of the Production of Bitcoin with Geothermal Energy: Case Study (Aliehyaei et al. 2023) Journal: Energy Science & Engineering (Impact Factor: 3.5) Findings: Demonstrates the economic feasibility of powering Bitcoin mining operations with geothermal energy, providing a renewable, profitable alternative to traditional energy sources. Source: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376862285_The_feasibility_study_of_the_production_of_Bitcoin_with_geothermal_energy_Case_study 14. The Relationship between Biomass & Bitcoin (Semaan et al. 2024) Journal: Sustainability (Impact Factor: 3.9) Findings: "Bitcoin [can] accelerate the UN's Sustainable Development Goals", and provides a way to make often economically unviable bio-refineries profitable Source: https://mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/7919 15. An integrated landfill gas-to-energy and Bitcoin mining framework (Rudd et al. 2024) Journal: Journal of Cleaner Production (Impact factor: 9.7) Findings: Bitcoin mining can profitably reduce landfill methane Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652624029652 16. High resolution modelling and analysis of cryptocurrency mining's impact on power grids: Carbon footprint, reliability, and electricity price (Menati et al. 2023) Journal: Advances in Applied Energy (Impact factor: 13) Findings: Bitcoin mining's flexibility increases both grid reliability & stability Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266679242300015X 17. Bitcoin's Carbon Footprint Revisited: Proof of Work Mining for Renewable Energy Expansion (Ibañez et al. 2022) Journal: Challenges (Impact Factor: 2.8) Findings: [our research finding support] "a possible role for Bitcoin mining in promoting grid decarbonization" through effective demand response" Source: https://mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/3/35 18. Bitcoin and Its Energy, Environmental & Social Impacts (Rudd et al. 2023) Journal: Challenges (Impact Factor: 2.8) Findings: There is "transformative potential in the Bitcoin mining sector, especially regarding demand response, grid flexibility, and methane mitigation" Source: https://mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/4/47 19. Can Bitcoin mining increase renewable capacity? (Bruno et al. 2023) Journal: Resource & Energy Economics (Impact Factor: 2.6) Findings: Bitcoin mining can increase renewable energy penetration, replacing the need for gas peaker plants. Also: "When Bitcoin miners provide ... demand response, their emissions impact is largely mitigated." Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928765523000313 20. Hedging Investments of Grid-Connected PV-BESS in Buildings Using Cryptocurrency Mining: A Case Study in Finland (Hajiaghapour-Moghimi et al. 2025) Journal: IEEE Access (Impact Factor 3.6) Findings: Bitcoin mining is more effective at accelerating rooftop solar development than using either Batteries, or standalone solar deployments. 12.5% ROI for Battery versus Bitcoin a 57.7% ROI using Bitcoin (4.6x higher). Source: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10168101 21. Energy Modeling and Techno-Economic Feasibility Analysis of Greenhouses for Tomato Cultivation Utilizing the Waste Heat of Cryptocurrency Miners (Asgari et al. 2023) Journal: MDPI Energies (Impact Factor 3.2) Findings: - Repurposing miner waste heat minimizes overall energy consumption and fossil fuel reliance, enabling year-round crop cultivation in cold regions - The integration promotes electrification and sustainable practices by avoiding CO2-emitting furnaces, contributing to net-zero goals in agriculture and reducing the environmental impact of food production chains, which account for 19-29% of global GHG emissions Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1331 22. Empirical Insights into Economic Viability: Integrating Bitcoin Mining with Biorefineries Using a Stochastic Model (Semaan et al. 2025) Journal: MDPI Systems (Impact Factor: 3.1) Findings: Integrating Bitcoin mining with bio-refineries can - avoid waste by creating an additional revenue stream that could lower prices for bio-based products - supports renewable energy growth by acting as a flexible, off-grid power sink, that reduces (flare) emissions Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/5/359 23. Energy optimization of bitcoin mining integrated greenhouse with model predictive control (Chen and You 2025) Journal: Applied Energy (Impact Factor: 11.0) Findings: Findings: Bitcoin mining - waste heat can be transformed into a resource for "advancing sustainable food production", while "enhancing food security" amid population growth - "reduce[s] reliance on fossil fuels, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance the economic sustainability of food production" - "reduc[e] energy consumption by up to 15%" Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306261925009869 24. Promoting rigor in blockchain energy and environmental footprint research (Sai & Vranken 2024) Journal: Blockchain-Research and Applications (Impact factor 6.9) Findings: Reveals data-gathering and methodological flaws in the works of Alex de Vries/Digiconomist and other early commentators on Bitcoin mining Source: https://sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2096720923000441 25. Hybrid Hydropower-PV with Mining Flexibility and Heat Recovery (Lee et al. 2025) Journal: Sustainability (Impact Factor 3.3) Findings: Bitcoin supports local renewable projects with heat recapture as an additional benefit. The study documented micro-hydropower + solar coupled with flexible Bitcoin mining and heat recovery for a greenhouse, finding that Bitcoin mining added operational optionality and local community benefits. Source: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/21/9488 26. Electric Water Heat Supply Using Cryptocurrency Mining (Toropov 2025) Journal: Case Studies in Thermal Engineering (Impact Factor 6.4) Findings: Bitcoin mining recycled heat can be directly captured and repurposed for domestic hot water supply and space heating in apartment buildings, turning a byproduct into a practical heating. The Bitcoin generated can subsidize or fully offset the high electricity costs of electric water heating, making the system more affordable for residential buildings, especially in colder climates. 27. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214157X25014546 Maximizing ROI in Cryptocurrency Mining Through Energy Optimization (Nasrinasrabadi et al. 2025) Journal: Energies (Impact Factor: 3.2) Findings: Renewable-powered mining is both profitable and lower-emission than renewable operations where Bitcoin mining is absent, making Bitcoin mining a potential driver of large-scale renewable deployment in regions with abundant solar and wind resources. Additionally, in hybrid operations (eg: solar+wind+diesel), Bitcoin mining reduced fossil fuel dependence and enabled a significantly higher renewable energy share. Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/22/5910 28. Techno-economic Assessments of Large-Scale Solar PV and Bitcoin Mining (Keshavarzfard & Zinati Yazdi 2025) Journal: Solar Energy (Impact Factor: 6.6) Findings: Pairing large-scale solar PV with Bitcoin mining transforms a low-viability standalone solar project (10-year payback, ~5% IRR) into a highly profitable venture with 2-5 year payback and 33% IRR (for a 10MW Solar farm). Pairing Bitcoin mining with a 10MW Solar farm was also found to result in ~10,457 tons of CO2 avoided emissions per annum. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038092X25007820 29. Energy, Economic and Environmental Impacts of Cryptocurrency Mining: A Review (Jafari et al. 2026) Journal: Energy Conversion and Management: X (Impact Factor 7.6) Findings: Bitcoin mining operations are extremely flexible loads that supports renewable-led decarbonization by absorbing excess renewable generation. The operations can curtail demand within minutes, participate in demand response programs, and provide ancillary services, directly enhancing grid stability and enabling higher renewable energy integration. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590174525005458 30. Leveraging Bitcoin Mining in Demand-Response to Mitigate Ramping-Induced Transients (Ginzburg-Ganz et al. 2026) Journal: Electric Power Systems Research (Impact Factor 4.2) Findings: Bitcoin mining enables better absorption of surplus renewable generation, minimizing curtailment and supporting higher renewable integration without extra storage or infrastructure costs, creating a win-win for grid stability and mining profitability. Bitcoin mining also was found to suppress costly ramping-induced "transients" (such as frequency fluctuations) while reducing grid operational expenses in power systems with high renewable penetration. Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378779625007874(Daniel Batten)