Bitcoin Mining Shutdown Sparks 20% Hike in Norwegian Town Energy Bills

Residents in a Norwegian town cheering for the shutdown of a bitcoin mining facility this week are facing a 20% spike in their electricity bills.

According to Norwegian media outlet NRK’s report on Saturday, a bitcoin mining facility in Stokmarknes operated by Kryptovault ceased operations earlier this week after the Hadsel municipality declined to renew the company’s expired temporary permit.

The Hadsel municipality had originally granted Kryptovault a permit three years ago to operate the Stokmarknes site, which had since drawn noise complaints from residents due to the air cooling fans used at the site. Air cooling typically produces much more noise than liquid cooling.

Kryptovault was the single largest customer of local energy company Noranett, accounting for 20% of its income. The shutdown of the mining facility means that all other power customers will now shoulder that cost, according to the NRK report.

A network manager at Noranett told NRK that there is a significant impact when a large individual customer shuts down overnight, estimating that electricity bills for other energy customers will rise by 20% as soon as next month.

Kjell-Børge Freiberg, mayor of the Hadsel municipality, said that this is how the power system regulation works and that the town must deal with it. He added that the administration will now seek new projects to utilize the excess power resulting from the shutdown of Kryptovault’s site.

“We work every day to facilitate industrial activity that we want to have in the municipality. It is not certain that we will be able to solve it in one month, but we work every day to facilitate business development,” Freiberg was quoted as saying.

Kryptovault reportedly declared bankruptcy in September 2023, but the Stokmarknes site remained operational until this week.