Discuss of the US shopping for Greenland has returned to Washington, and miners are monitoring the ability initiatives on the island.
The White Home stated a U.S. buy of Greenland is an “energetic dialogue,” in keeping with Reuters.
For Bitcoin miners, the extra actionable clock is Greenland’s industrial energy planning.
How Greenland’s hydropower interprets into actual Bitcoin mining capability
Greenland’s authorities stated it plans to open a public tender spherical within the second half of 2026 for the 2 largest mapped hydropower websites meant for industrial use, Tasersiaq (web site 07.e) and Tarsartuup Tasersua (web site 06.g), in keeping with Naalakkersuisut.gl.
It stated the 2 websites collectively might produce greater than 9,500 gigawatt-hours yearly.
Mining math is simple.
Bitmain’s Antminer S21 specification lists 200 TH/s at 3,500 watts, or about 17.5 joules per terahash, in keeping with Bitmain.
Utilizing a planning energy utilization effectiveness worth close to 1.1 (cooling and overhead), 1 megawatt of facility energy equates to about 0.052 exahash per second (EH/s) at 17.5 J/TH.
That suggests about 0.041–0.061 EH/s throughout a 15–22 J/TH effectivity band.
| Facility energy (MW) | Hashrate ceiling (EH/s) @ 17.5 J/TH, PUE 1.1 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 0.26 |
| 25 | 1.30 |
| 50 | 2.60 |
| 100 | 5.19 |
Greenland’s put in base is much smaller than the tendered ambition.
Nukissiorfiit reviews about 91.3 megawatts of hydropower capability throughout its methods and a median electrical energy gross sales worth of about DKK 1.81 per kilowatt-hour in 2024, in keeping with its annual report.
Retail-style pricing at that degree doesn’t map cleanly onto mining economics.
That’s the reason any massive construct relies on industrial energy buy agreements or behind-the-meter provide at new era, slightly than shopping for energy like a standard buyer.
The dearth of a nationwide grid narrows the paths to scale.
Energy stations typically serve cities and settlements as native methods, with restricted interconnection, in keeping with Trap Greenland.
That pushes early “stranded” or surplus-energy ideas towards colocating versatile load at particular crops.
Greenland reporting has mentioned using surplus vitality within the context of reducing vitality prices, in keeping with Greenland Review.
If 5–25 megawatts may be aggregated behind the meter close to current era, the ceiling is about 0.21–1.52 EH/s throughout the 15–22 J/TH band (about 0.26–1.30 EH/s at 17.5 J/TH).
That’s sufficient for pilots, however not sufficient to maneuver international community share.
The following rung up is Nuuk’s most important hydro plant.
Scaling bitcoin mining in Greenland: from surplus energy pilots to grid-level growth
Buksefjord is deliberate to increase from 45 megawatts to 121 megawatts, with building anticipated to start in 2026 and commissioning focused for 2032, in keeping with NunaGreen.
The European Investment Bank’s project pipeline references a roughly 76-megawatt Buksefjord-3 construct close to the present 45-megawatt plant.
If 50–121 megawatts of output have been contracted to miners, {the electrical} ceiling is about 2.07–7.33 EH/s throughout the 15–22 J/TH band (about 2.6–6.3 EH/s at 17.5 J/TH).
That assumes these megawatts will not be absorbed by Nuuk demand development and electrification plans.
The 2-site tender is the place Greenland turns into a gigawatt-scale dialogue.
Greater than 9,500 GWh a yr equates to about 1.08 gigawatts of common energy if totally utilized.
That suggests an electricity-limited hashrate ceiling round 44.8–65.7 EH/s throughout the 15–22 J/TH band (about 56.0 EH/s at 17.5 J/TH).
Monitoring websites place Bitcoin hashrate round 1.03–1.17 zetahash per second (ZH/s), and minerstat locations issue close to 148 trillion, in keeping with minerstat.
On that baseline, a completely utilized 1.08 GW mine implies about 4–6% of at present’s community hashrate, with the share shrinking if international hashrate expands.
May Trump-linked capital eye Greenland’s vitality surplus for Bitcoin mining growth?
Trump-linked mining capital is already forming, which is why Greenland’s energy calendar might draw consideration contained in the sector.
Hut 8 partnered with Eric Trump to launch American Bitcoin, combining Hut 8’s mining operations with an investor group that features Donald Trump Jr., whereas Hut 8 retained an 80% stake.
American Bitcoin stated put in hashrate expanded to about 24 EH/s and cited fleet effectivity round 16.4 J/TH as of Sept. 1, 2025, in keeping with the company.
Utilizing the identical PUE 1.1 planning worth, 24 EH/s implies roughly 430 megawatts of facility energy at 16.4 J/TH (about 460 megawatts at 17.5 J/TH).
Which means a completely utilized 1.08 GW tender buildout might energy an American Bitcoin-sized fleet greater than as soon as over, if the offtake have been devoted to mining and if transmission and building timelines cleared.
Even in a “what if” sovereignty situation, the constraints keep sensible.
Industrial hydro requires multiyear building, heavy logistics, and long-duration offtake, and mines want resilient information hyperlinks, spares, and import capability for ASIC fleets.
Greenland Join hyperlinks Canada, Nuuk, Qaqortoq, and Iceland by subsea cable, in keeping with Tusass, nevertheless it doesn’t remedy transmission to distant hydro basins.
Clear, agency megawatts additionally face competitors from different masses.
The International Energy Agency has warned that AI will drive larger electrical energy demand from information facilities, which might increase the chance price of dedicating long-duration renewable output to mining.
Diplomacy will form financing situations round any “Trump Greenland mine” thesis.
European officers have harassed that Greenland’s standing rests on consent and sovereignty norms, in keeping with Reuters.
Greenland’s tender spherical deliberate for the second half of 2026 will set the baseline for any large-scale Bitcoin mining offtake from new hydropower on the island.
Why Greenland’s vitality economics and geopolitics matter for large-scale Bitcoin mining
Nevertheless, if Greenland have been introduced beneath U.S. jurisdiction and handled as an vitality buildout zone slightly than a small, fragmented utility market, the renewable ceiling that issues for mining would shift from 1-GW-class hydro tenders to additionally concentrate on wind.
Based on a methods examine printed in Power and listed on ScienceDirect, Greenland’s onshore wind technical potential is about 333 GW nameplate, producing about 1,487 TWh per yr beneath the belief that 20% of Greenland’s ice-free space is out there.
That equates to about 170 GW of common era on an vitality foundation.
Output can be variable and would require transmission, overbuild, curtailment, storage, and firming to serve a 24/7 load at scale.
Translating that energy-only ceiling into hashrate exhibits how far the “Trump Greenland mine” narrative may be pushed in principle.
At 15–22 J/TH with PUE round 1.1, 170 GW of common era implies roughly 7.0–10.4 ZH/s of hashing capability if miners might soak up the common output as a versatile load, nicely above at present’s community.
Present hashrate stands at round 1 ZH/s, so buying sufficient mining machines to facilitate such a build-out makes this largely a theoretical train in potential forward-facing limits.
Additionally, 10 ZH/s is just not a “24/7 agency baseload” until you add large transmission, overbuild, curtailment, and storage/firming (or settle for downtime/variable operation). It’s a ceiling primarily based on absorbing common wind vitality slightly than delivering assured energy each hour.
Nonetheless, a crude linear extrapolation of that very same examine’s land-availability assumption from 20% to 100% implies about 7,435 TWh per yr (about 848 GW common), or roughly 34.8–51.7 ZH/s.
That could be a physics-and-maps ceiling slightly than a construct plan, given siting, allowing, ports, roads, and HVDC necessities.
Based on IRENA, the worldwide common put in price for brand spanking new onshore wind in 2023 was about $1,154 per kW.
That places 333 GW at roughly $384 billion in generators alone earlier than Arctic premiums, transmission, and firming infrastructure.
OneMiners lists an Antminer S21 XP Hyd at 473 TH/s for $6,799. To make the most of 333 GW, you’d want roughly 21,141,650 miners, which involves round $143 billion.
Nevertheless, that’s simply the ASIC buy price. It excludes delivery, duties/VAT, spares, racks/PSUs/networking, buildings, cooling/hydro loops, and commissioning, stuff that’s very non-trivial at tens of hundreds of thousands of models.
All in, assuming {hardware} is out there (which it is not), an funding of round $427 billion would give a miner primarily based in Greenland sufficient renewable energy-sourced hash energy to regulate the $1.8 trillion Bitcoin community ten occasions over. Or round $55 billion to equal the present community hashrate (it isn’t merely 1/tenth as a consequence of scaling).
These are all “again of an envelope” figures with a lot of caveats and assumptions, however the actuality is that there is sufficient unused vitality in Greenland to energy the Bitcoin community many occasions over. With Starlink deployment, you would in all probability construct some main AI datacenters, too.
