Store excess solar power production in Bitcoin: IEEE study

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Dynamic solar power systems that switch between selling excess electricity back to the grid and using it for digital asset mining may be an answer to energy problems, according to an IEEE case study.

The study highlights the two critical problems for block reward miners: massive energy consumption and the resulting environmental pollution.

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A groundbreaking new study shows that Bitcoin mining is the most effective way to accelerate rollout of solar panels across the world’s cities:

More effective than using either subsidies or Batteries by an order of magnitude.

Let's dive in
👇 pic.twitter.com/TUcaNLLdEo

— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) June 10, 2025

Renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, are often touted as an answer to the electricity demands of digital currency. Yet, based on the current way that renewables are used and the technological and economic challenges that remain, it isn’t possible for them to meet the demand for energy without further technological advancement and changes to the current energy system.

One of the specific problems—one that is particularly prevalent in Finland, the location of the paper’s case study—is that peak loads occur in winter, while renewables such as solar only hit peak generation during summer. This cascades into a broader problem: the perception that the fixed investment cost of getting a solar system up and running is not worth the ultimate savings of switching to renewables.

A common solution to this problem has been to use batteries capable of storing excess electricity until needed. However, this is only so useful: batteries must be discharged past a certain point.

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That's because batteries only give so much storage before they have to be discharged

This study compared Battery to Bitcoin mining

The difference was stark

Bitcoin is not just a little big better than batteries, it is 4.6x better than batteries: a facemelting 57.7% ROI pic.twitter.com/PdGCvAqWgp

— Daniel Batten (@DSBatten) June 10, 2025

The IEEE study essentially proposes storing the value associated with the excess electricity—not in a battery, but in Bitcoin. The study suggests a system that channels excess energy production in peak times—such as summer—into digital asset mining.

This works on similar principles to a model already implemented in domestic renewable production, whereby homeowners with solar power can sell back excess production to the grid.

Under the newly proposed system, homeowners could switch between putting their excess energy back into the grid and putting it into digital asset mining, depending on which is most competitive at the time.

The benefits of this are myriad. Not only does it help populate the digital asset mining ecosystem with clean, renewable energy, but the savings and returns given to homeowners can help reduce the overall annual cost of housing. It also helps offset one of the drawbacks of the sellback model, which is the overall reduction of electricity price due to higher supply, thereby making it less viable for homeowners to sell.

The envisioned model was applied to a 24-apartment building in Helsinki, Finland. The report contains a case study undertaken in Finland using a 24-apartment building in Helsinki with half of its roof space taken up by solar panels. It was found that the building’s annual costs could be reduced by 68.1%.

“It has been shown that employing the proposed hedging mechanism will result in sufficient encouragement to invest in PV systems and decrease the annual cost of residential apartments,” reads the study.

The study notes that though the case study bears out the assumptions, more work is still needed to test the model’s viability. This could include investigating the potential of peer-to-peer energy trading among apartment tenants and investigating the role that government policy could play in encouraging adoption.

Watch: Bryan Daugherty: Proof of ESG initiative through a sustainable blockchain