Renewable energy for miners

[OsaiEmma]

Recently I've been wanting to go into Bitcoin mining, and man, it's really expensive, I was looking at using renewable energy (solar and wind turbine) and it will really be a good project, but it got me thinking, will Bitcoin miners profit more if they opt for renewable energy.

I did some research and found out in countries like the US, Canada, China, Russia, Germany, e.t.c with high electricity cost, opting into renewable energy will be more profitable on the long run, compared to countries like Oman, Austria, Spain, e.t.c with cheap power supply, opting into renewable energy here will be less profitable.

That's my take on it, or are there any other considerations needed of opting into renewable energy for Bitcoin mining

[BitMaxz]

Those countries you mention seem to have low electricity rates.
If your point of making this thread is about how much you can earn on free power, then it should be profitable.

However, if you are planning to have a renewable source, I'm sure it would cost too much for a single ASIC unit.
But still, if you can manage it in the long run and afford to pay for the electricity bill for long term you should be profitable if the BTC hit ATH or nearly ATH.

[OsaiEmma]

Those countries you mention seem to have low electricity rates.
If your point of making this thread is about how much you can earn on free power, then it should be profitable.

However, if you are planning to have a renewable source, I'm sure it would cost too much for a single ASIC unit.
But still, if you can manage it in the long run and afford to pay for the electricity bill for long term you should be profitable if the BTC hit ATH or nearly ATH.

Hmmm, so in other words, renewable energy is not ideal for BTC mining with its current price

[BitMaxz]

Hmmm, so in other words, renewable energy is not ideal for BTC mining with its current price.

If you can afford why not?
Actually, it's ideal for BTC mining if you can maintain and provide stable power 24/7 to run the ASIC unit, plus you have a free power source from the environment. It's profitable in the long run, but the only problem is building this is expensive; it costs too much.

[MoonReaver]

Recently I've been wanting to go into Bitcoin mining, and man, it's really expensive, I was looking at using renewable energy (solar and wind turbine) and it will really be a good project, but it got me thinking, will Bitcoin miners profit more if they opt for renewable energy.

I did some research and found out in countries like the US, Canada, China, Russia, Germany, e.t.c with high electricity cost, opting into renewable energy will be more profitable on the long run, compared to countries like Oman, Austria, Spain, e.t.c with cheap power supply, opting into renewable energy here will be less profitable.

That's my take on it, or are there any other considerations needed of opting into renewable energy for Bitcoin mining

If you’re mining then take into consideration there moght be damage to hardware too, If you’re mining then you should be in long run game, it takes at least 200-300 days to cover mining hardware cost post that you can expect some profit (Asics taking into consideration here).

In winters when sun might not be there then solar might not be able generate any or enough energy (there will be many factors to take into consideration here, I also thought about using both electricity and solar energy for mining if such conditions appear).

[MaxMueller]

Hmmm, so in other words, renewable energy is not ideal for BTC mining with its current price.

If you can afford why not?
Actually, it's ideal for BTC mining if you can maintain and provide stable power 24/7 to run the ASIC unit, plus you have a free power source from the environment. It's profitable in the long run, but the only problem is building this is expensive; it costs too much.

Modern miners need to run 24/7 due to high acquisition costs. For renewables i would go 1-2 generations back, e.g. S19 instead of S21/S23.
But due to low efficiency energy cost need to be really cheap.

You may also want to have a look to [Guide] Renewable energies and BTC mining - A calculation attempt which reflects the problem of low utilization.

[goldkingcoiner]

In the short term, the setup is too expensive. Although it can be argued that in the long run the investment pays for itself.
But more importantly, you require a stable source of energy. Renewables are anything but stable.
What are you going to do when there is an interruption? Pay for regular electricity? Depending on where you live, that can be very costly.

So in a country like Germany you would be shooting yourself in the foot.

[MaxMueller]

In addition you may learn about cooling to oc your miners. As a result you would lower aquisition costs per TH, but also increasing the effort to put in it.
Might be an idea.

[Welsh]

Unless, you've got a rather sophisticated setup or access to renewable energy already its usually not worth the setup cost. At least, for any sort of hobby miner. If you're running some of the more expensive kit and you're pool mining looking to earn a profit everyday. That initial cost is still going to make that miner run at a deficit for years to come.

Solar panels are probably the most realistic approach, but even then they get very expensive, and require fairly optimal setup. In the UK for example, you'll be alright in the summer, but the winter they're nearly useless when comparing it to the amount of energy serious miners need. Even, to run a small nerdqaxe or bitaxe farm you would need some serious space.

It's probably better investing in solar panels for running stuff in your house, rather than mining. By the time you break even you'll probably need to replace your mining hardware anyway, which means you've probably been running at a loss for multiple years in a row.

It's alright if your lottery mining I suppose, and aren't building the solar panels solely for the purpose of mining. 

[MaxMueller]

Unless, you've got a rather sophisticated setup or access to renewable energy already its usually not worth the setup cost. At least, for any sort of hobby miner. If you're running some of the more expensive kit and you're pool mining looking to earn a profit everyday. That initial cost is still going to make that miner run at a deficit for years to come.

Solar panels are probably the most realistic approach, but even then they get very expensive, and require fairly optimal setup. In the UK for example, you'll be alright in the summer, but the winter they're nearly useless when comparing it to the amount of energy serious miners need. Even, to run a small nerdqaxe or bitaxe farm you would need some serious space.

It's probably better investing in solar panels for running stuff in your house, rather than mining. By the time you break even you'll probably need to replace your mining hardware anyway, which means you've probably been running at a loss for multiple years in a row.

It's alright if your lottery mining I suppose, and aren't building the solar panels solely for the purpose of mining. 

The approach is wrong.
With a nerdqaxe or bitaxe at $50-$100/TH, you will never achieve ROI, no even with 100% utilization.

Furthermore, BM1370 ASIC chips only make sense at utilization rates >90%.
With renewable energies, you HAVE TO go with older chips to achieve initial costs of at least <$5/TH, to have a chance for ROI.

[Welsh]

The approach is wrong.
With a nerdqaxe or bitaxe at $50-$100/TH, you will never achieve ROI, no even with 100% utilization.

Furthermore, BM1370 ASIC chips only make sense at utilization rates >90%.
With renewable energies, you HAVE TO go with older chips to achieve initial costs of at least <$5/TH, to have a chance for ROI.

Yeah, that's why I said it would probably only make sense for lottery mining. I.e, you want a 'lottery ticket' but want to pay the minimal for it. So, you do the investment of the solar panels, and then have a 'free' lottery ticket. If you are mining for daily profit, you'd have to have a rather large setup to make any kind of profit.

Yeah, using older chips helps with energy usage, but the thing with older chips is they're becoming less profitable every day and its a sort of race against time. That's why I'm of the opinion that renewable energy only makes sense for large industrial level mining operations. For the home miner, potentially lottery mining, and further offsetting the cost could be beneficial.