In Norway, Bitcoin is being hunted at the expense of electricity bills

© PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Archives

As Europe's largest hydroelectric producer, with affordable prices to boot, Norway has recently served as a haven for several large Bitcoin mining industries. Today, its residents are chasing them away, all their servers and fans to have peace. The problem is that it drives up the bill in terms of electricity.

Initially based in the south of the country, the Kryptovault company moved in 2022 after the drought that hit the region. Heading to the north of Norway, to the town of Hadsel. Water is abundant there and powers the hydroelectric facilities located there, which are responsible for 88% of Norwegian production.

By setting up there, the mining company brought so much money to Noranett, the local electricity supplier, that the price of a kilowatt hour was rebalanced at the national level. It must be said that Kryptovault was pumping the equivalent of 3,200 homes, as reported by Les Échos.

But there is one downside: the noise. Given the computers needed to run such a mining company, gigantic fans were installed at the same time, and they make life hell for the inhabitants. They run 24 hours a day and make them deaf to everything else. So much so that they have asked for their permanent departure. Faced with public discontent, the Hadsel authorities have not renewed the company's temporary permit, forcing it to cease operations since September 13.

As a result, the amount of bills is suffering: residents are currently suffering a 20% increase. “When such a large individual customer goes out overnight, it has an impact,” Robin Jakobsen, network manager at Noranett, told Norwegian media outlet NRK. It remains to be seen what the government will plan for its future regulations on data centers in general. What seems certain is that Bitcoin companies will no longer be welcome in Norway, which is considered far too polluting and noisy.

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