Bitcoin Mining Consumes 30% of Paraguay Energy, Analysts Reveal

Paraguayan Grid Could Face Crisis By 2029 Due To Bitcoin Mining Operations

The state of bitcoin mining in Paraguay and its effect on the Paraguayan energy grid worries analysts, who fear that the rise of these activities can put the country’s energy independence in jeopardy.

During the “Accelerating Bitcoin” conference earlier this month, experts discussed the future of bitcoin mining and how, if bitcoin mining keeps growing, a crisis could develop by 2029.

Victorio Oxilia, an energy researcher, stressed that bitcoin mining activities consume the generation of a turbine and a half of the Itaipu dam, one of the largest in the world. Paraguay is popular as a bitcoin mining haven due to its 100% renewable energy blueprint from hydroelectric sources.

Oxilia also revealed that bitcoin mining consumed 30% of all the energy consumption of Paraguay, and that this could develop into a crisis in 2029 if hydrological conditions remain favourable. Nonetheless, energy contracts inked with mining companies in Paraguay expire in 2027, and their extension is still uncertain.

Julio Fernández, head of the Center for Economic Studies of the Paraguayan Industrial Union (UIP), issued a similar warning last year, alerting that if nothing was done, a blackout was coming.