Bitcoin Could Turn Wasted Energy into Revenue for Ireland and Ukraine

• Ukraine could generate USD 1 billion with 750 MW of mining over five years.
• In Ireland, 30 MW of mining could absorb up to 93% of wasted wind energy.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining could become a tool to address electrical infrastructure issues in Ireland and Ukraine. Two studies published on August 11, 2026, analyze its application in very different contexts: in Ireland, to consume wind electricity that the grid cannot absorb; and in Ukraine, to monetize electricity from nuclear plants that has been isolated due to the destruction of transmission lines.

The study on Ireland, published in the journal Energy Economics, modeled a 20 MW mining facility alongside a 100 MW wind farm using hourly data from the Irish electricity market in 2024. The result indicates that this capacity could absorb 83% of the wind energy that is currently curtailed due to system restrictions and increase total park revenues by 32%.

The research also considers expanding mining capacity to 30 MW. In that scenario, the absorption of wasted wind energy would rise to 93%, although the utilization factor of the equipment would decrease from 61% to 52%. The model also calculates that the effective capacity factor of the wind farm would increase from 29% to 32%.

The problem addressed by the study has intensified in Ireland. When wind generation exceeds the capacity of transmission lines or available demand, operators must curtail part of that production. The available wind generation that was curtailed due to these limitations rose from 10.1% in 2024, equivalent to 1.3 TWh, to 11.4% in 2025, while the installation of new wind capacity advanced faster than the expansion of transmission infrastructure.

The research also identifies an economic limit for this application. Under the analyzed conditions, equipment with an efficiency of 16 J/TH is viable, while older models of 98 J/TH are not profitable. Profitability also depends on the evolution of the bitcoin price against the growth of the network's hashrate.

The case of Ukraine stems from a different problem. Russian attacks have reduced the country's electrical grid capacity from about 36-38 GW to approximately 14 GW, while several plants maintain generation capacity that cannot be fully utilized due to the destruction of transmission lines.

In this scenario, a study by the Bitcoin Policy Institute proposes installing modular mining containers directly next to the affected nuclear plants. Deployment could take place within six to nine months, compared to the three to five years required to rebuild some of the transmission connections. The estimated cost of reconstructing those lines amounts to about 10 billion dollars.

The Ukrainian model considers a mining capacity of up to 750 MW. According to the study's projection, this infrastructure could generate nearly 1 billion dollars over five years, aimed at contributing to the debt service associated with energy reconstruction.

The proposal also contemplates that the equipment reduces its consumption when the system needs to recover electricity for other consumers and increases its activity when there is generation capacity without sufficient output to the grid.

It is worth noting that Bitcoin mining has already been studied in various contexts to take advantage of generation surpluses. For now, the main limitation remains economic: mining requires efficient equipment and sufficiently cheap electricity to maintain margins. These cases open a specific field for Bitcoin mining within energy planning. If the models from Ireland and Ukraine move from academic analysis to operational projects, other countries could start evaluating mining not for its overall electricity consumption but for its ability to provide economic use to specific points where energy infrastructure cannot absorb all available generation.

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