Discuss of the USA shopping for Greenland has returned to Washington, and miners are monitoring the ability tasks on the island.
The White Home mentioned a U.S. buy of Greenland is an “energetic dialogue,” in line 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 mentioned it plans to open a public tender spherical within the second half of 2026 for the 2 largest mapped hydropower websites supposed for industrial use, Tasersiaq (website 07.e) and Tarsartuup Tasersua (website 06.g), in line with Naalakkersuisut.gl.
It mentioned 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 line 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 means 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 experiences about 91.3 megawatts of hydropower capability throughout its techniques and a median electrical energy gross sales worth of about DKK 1.81 per kilowatt-hour in 2024, in line with its annual report.
Retail-style pricing at that stage doesn’t map cleanly onto mining economics.
That’s the reason any giant construct is dependent upon industrial energy buy agreements or behind-the-meter provide at new technology, somewhat than shopping for energy like a traditional buyer.
The dearth of a nationwide grid narrows the paths to scale.
Energy stations typically serve cities and settlements as native techniques, with restricted interconnection, in line with Entice 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 decreasing vitality prices, in line with Greenland Overview.
If 5–25 megawatts might be aggregated behind the meter close to present technology, 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 world community share.
The following rung up is Nuuk’s major hydro plant.
Scaling bitcoin mining in Greenland: from surplus energy pilots to grid-level enlargement
Buksefjord is deliberate to broaden from 45 megawatts to 121 megawatts, with development anticipated to start in 2026 and commissioning focused for 2032, in line with NunaGreen.
The European Funding Financial institution’s venture 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 aren’t absorbed by Nuuk demand progress 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 absolutely utilized.
That means 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 line with minerstat.
On that baseline, a completely utilized 1.08 GW mine implies about 4–6% of immediately’s community hashrate, with the share shrinking if world hashrate expands.
May Trump-linked capital eye Greenland’s vitality surplus for Bitcoin mining enlargement?
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 mentioned put in hashrate expanded to about 24 EH/s and cited fleet effectivity round 16.4 J/TH as of Sept. 1, 2025, in line with the corporate.
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 development timelines cleared.
Even in a “what if” sovereignty state of affairs, the constraints keep sensible.
Industrial hydro requires multiyear development, heavy logistics, and long-duration offtake, and mines want resilient knowledge hyperlinks, spares, and import capability for ASIC fleets.
Greenland Join hyperlinks Canada, Nuuk, Qaqortoq, and Iceland by subsea cable, in line with Tusass, however it doesn’t clear up transmission to distant hydro basins.
Clear, agency megawatts additionally face competitors from different hundreds.
The Worldwide Vitality Company has warned that AI will drive greater electrical energy demand from knowledge facilities, which may 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 confused that Greenland’s standing rests on consent and sovereignty norms, in line 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
Nonetheless, if Greenland have been introduced beneath U.S. jurisdiction and handled as an vitality buildout zone somewhat than a small, fragmented utility market, the renewable ceiling that issues for mining would shift from 1-GW-class hydro tenders to additionally deal with wind.
In keeping with a techniques research revealed in Vitality and listed on ScienceDirect, Greenland’s onshore wind technical potential is about 333 GW nameplate, producing about 1,487 TWh per yr beneath the idea that 20% of Greenland’s ice-free space is obtainable.
That equates to about 170 GW of common technology 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 reveals how far the “Trump Greenland mine” narrative might be pushed in idea.
At 15–22 J/TH with PUE round 1.1, 170 GW of common technology implies roughly 7.0–10.4 ZH/s of hashing capability if miners might take up the typical output as a versatile load, properly above immediately’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 just isn’t a “24/7 agency baseload” except you add huge transmission, overbuild, curtailment, and storage/firming (or settle for downtime/variable operation). It’s a ceiling based mostly on absorbing common wind vitality somewhat than delivering assured energy each hour.
Nonetheless, a crude linear extrapolation of that very same research’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 somewhat than a construct plan, given siting, allowing, ports, roads, and HVDC necessities.
In keeping with 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.
Nonetheless, 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 tens of millions of models.
All in, assuming {hardware} is obtainable (which it is not), an funding of round $427 billion would give a miner based mostly in Greenland sufficient renewable energy-sourced hash energy to manage the $1.8 trillion Bitcoin community ten instances 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 number of caveats and assumptions, however the actuality is that there is sufficient unused vitality in Greenland to energy the Bitcoin community many instances over. With Starlink deployment, you might in all probability construct some main AI datacenters, too.
