Bitcoin mining can be a ‘bridge’ to a renewable energy future by supporting green projects, a leading North American miner says

Bitcoin mining can be a ‘bridge’ to a renewable energy future by supporting green projects, a leading North American miner says

Bitcoin mining can help the development of renewable energy technologies by allowing a quicker return on green investments, according to the head of one of North America's biggest crypto miners.

Mike Colyer, chief executive of Foundry, a sister company of major bitcoin player Grayscale, told Insider he thinks bitcoin can be "a bridge between our current energy production and this future world of renewable energy production."

His argument is the boom in green-energy creation has led to oversupply in many areas, which can be difficult to manage and costly for renewables firms.

Colyer said locating bitcoin mines near renewable energy projects can help deal with this oversupply, in turn helping the development of green technology.

"It allows for a faster payback on those solar projects or wind projects, which means more of them can be built faster in regions where before it was not attractive, because they would produce too much energy for the grid in that area," he said.

Other miners have echoed this argument, although the secretive nature of the industry means it is difficult to gauge the rate of change.

And many remain unconvinced. As the bitcoin price has soared this year, arguments over its intense energy use have heated up, with climate