If someone comes up with something better, we'll switch. Until then, the energy use isn't wasted.
How about solar energy powered mining hardware?
That is very resourceful in my opinion and will return the ROI of solar panels in just few months.
Solar energy for bitcoin mining makes sense in about the same situations as solar energy for anything else.
If you're using solar energy powering mining hardware, that means solar energy that you can't use for something else. Even if you don't use any non-solar energy, it means solar energy that you can't sell to the grid companies thereby making you money and lowering the amount of power the grid companies need to generate.
If you want to calculate the ROI of the solar panels, you should be measuring against the cost to have powered that mining hardware using your best alternative to solar energy. If you're connected to the grid, and you don't live in a great location for solar energy (which, incidentally, are probably the worst locations for bitcoin mining in terms of need for cooling), then I'm not sure you're getting much, if any, ROI.
If you live in the middle of nowhere, and can get (wireless) Internet but not (wired) electricity, solar power might very well be the way to go. Which brings me back to my initial statement. Makes sense in about the same situations as solar energy for anything else.
+1
Photovoltaic is generally a tad overrated. Environmentalists often claim that you go ROI with a photovoltaic system in 15 years (central europe). The calculation often used for this is incredible inaccurate, too many factors aren't included. At this point the only reason to use photovoltaic systems is its portability, otherwise there are technologies with a far bigger potential with which you go ROI in less than 10 years. Well unless you live in a region with more than 2200 kWh/m2 solar energy.
Now back to the topic, Bitcoin will have to face critique regarding its power consumption, of this I am sure. It's hard to predict how the users and the media will react to the problems facing Bitcoin once it reaches a certain size. At some point it just gets impractical.
As an environmental engineer, who does this job out of conviction (I know we're not really popular
) I hope that Bitcoin will get replaced by a more efficient system in the next 3 years. I would miss Bitcoin though