New Hampshire statewide blockchain energy plan recommended
A commission on cryptocurrencies and digital assets has called for a legal regime to establish New Hampshire, United States, as a leading blockchain and crypto mining jurisdiction.
After almost a year of deliberations, among its findings, the Commission has recommended that the New Hampshire Department of Energy should conduct a public review of how Bitcoin mining operations might be integrated into a statewide energy plan “with positive impacts for the electricity system, including contributing to more stable electricity grid, more sustainable generation projects and lower costs for consumers generally”.
“Such a review should include a focus on how New Hampshire law might enable ‘inside-the-fence’ arrangements that would support the development of renewable energy projects within New Hampshire,” the Commission stated, saying local and national experts in Bitcoin mining and their potential costs and benefits for electricity networks should be invited to contribute.
Notwithstanding the controversial high energy consumption of crypto mining, the Commission had heard that the interruptible nature of Bitcoin mining’s electricity demand may offer stabilising benefits to electricity grids and encourage the development of new energy resources including renewables.
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Governor Chris Sununu described the Commission’s report as comprehensive and timely, with “specific recommendations that would establish New Hampshire as a leading jurisdiction for the development of sound and effective applications of blockchain technologies.”
Legal and regulatory status
The Commission, charged to investigate the potential of blockchain technologies to promote innovation and economic growth in the state and in particular to address the legal and regulatory aspects, found that blockchain technology appears to be an important technical innovation with many potentially important applications in our human societies and economies.
However, the legal and regulatory status of the technology and applications such as cryptocurrencies and digital assets is highly uncertain, and this uncertainty is materially undermining innovation and economic development of new technologies, activities and industry.
Thus the New Hampshire government should devote resources to establishing a state legal regime that will offer an attractive jurisdiction for “the best responsible blockchain innovators, entrepreneurs and businesses, while protecting investors and consumers who use their applications”.
The New Hampshire report follows a November 2022 report in Texas that recommended giving tax incentives for Bitcoin miners which participate in flexibility schemes and for the use of flared gas that is used on site – an increasingly popular approach for crypto miners.
These reports illustrate the stark differences in crypto mining across the US, with states such as Texas actively encouraging it, while New York on the other hand has enacted a ban, albeit temporary.
Obviously many factors come into play and how it will play on the energy and economic fronts remains to be seen. Cryptocurrency prices and other factors such as the increasing mining effort required as more Bitcoins are mined are other factors.
In its latest update, the Bitcoin Mining Council estimates the global Bitcoin mining industry’s sustainable energy mix to stand at 58.9% at the end of 2022, only marginally up from 58.5% at the end of 2021, but showing a 16% improvement in technological efficiency at 22.4EH/GW compared with 19.3EH/GW the previous year.
