a good exec summary:
“The nature of the Bitcoin protocol and mining dynamics force miners to seek progressively cheaper energy sources, and that means utilizing renewable, wasted and stranded energy. Bitcoin is not taking gas from your car or electricity from your house, it is making power production more efficient, utilizing otherwise “stranded” energy sources and helping to fund the development of renewable energy technologies.”
not that any of us are worried about emissions...BUT...the development of cheap power is good, and more renewables are in play because BTC mining makes them immediately profitable. Once up and running, other uses can move closer to them....Eventually, as transmission (and storage) become more efficient...we will be able to use power generated from these renewable sources and look back and say that it all started with bitcoin mining....