Tag: Renewables

Brazil's Stranded Power Problem: How Grid Bottlenecks Are Turning Utilities Into Bitcoin Miners

Brazil sits on one of the most abundant renewable energy grids on the planet — nearly 90% clean generation, vast hydroelectric basins and a wind corridor in the Northeast that ranks among the world's cheapest sources of electricity. Yet transmission infrastructure has not kept pace with generation capacity, leaving hundreds of gigawatt-hours of clean electricity stranded every year, curtailed and wasted because the wires simply do not exist to carry it to demand centers. Now, a growing number of Brazilian utilities, energy traders and mining startups are reaching for an unconventional answer: deploy Bitcoin mining rigs directly behind the meter, converting electricity that would otherwise evaporate into digital assets — turning a grid liability into a revenue stream.