Bitcoin Kept Me Warm In Texas

I’ve been in Austin for about 12 years now and have lived a majority of my life in Texas between Austin, Corpus Christi, Lubbock and El Paso.

I can say, without any shadow of doubt that Winter Storm Uri in 2021 was the worst experience I’ve ever had living here.

So here’s how we monitor the grid here in Texas at ERCOT.

Unfortunately I didn’t grab a screenshot of what the power looked like on the day of the storm but if the blue line goes above the purple zone, that’s when blackouts start to happen and in freezing temperatures with a population not used to those storms nor prepared for long term effects you get deaths (200+ in 2021), people burning down their houses because they’re running their gas ovens and a whole host of other issues.

It was so bad that now that all of my family lives in Florida, I often spend a month or two in the winter down there every year because of it.

So now this past weekend was the first snowstorm I experienced since that last one 5 years ago and the lights stayed on and I mostly cooked food, watched movies and had a couple of snow days.

Bitcoin played a large part in that and it’s why although this newsletter is called The Million Dollar Bitcoin, Bitcoin’s true value extends much further than “number go up”.

Because here’s the other thing, Bitcoin is a huge unlock to electric savings for the consumer by not needing to construct new peaker plants, provides positive returns for cheap renewable energy solar and wind projects and has a built in grid stabilization capabilities.

By the way there’s a whole chapter about this in The Million Dollar Bitcoin book which you should buy right here.

So let’s talk about how Bitcoin is helping to create a better power grid.

Last month, Sangha Renewables flipped the switch on a 19.9-megawatt Bitcoin mining facility in Ector County. Nothing revolutionary about the equipment... computers solving math problems, same as every other mining operation.

But here’s what makes it different.

The facility sits directly on a 150-megawatt solar farm owned by TotalEnergies. When the sun’s blazing and nobody needs the power, those Bitcoin miners power up and absorb every excess watt but when demand spikes and Texas needs that electricity elsewhere, the miners shut down in seconds.

“This is a win-win-win,” said Spencer Marr, co-founder of Sangha Renewables. “The power producer earns more per megawatt-hour, our investors gain exposure to low-cost Bitcoin production, and we deliver grid-stabilizing load where it’s needed most.”

Before this facility went live, that solar site was selling 10.1% of its total energy generation at a loss and would eventually have to shut down.

The Bitcoin miners created a price floor.

Now that “worthless” energy has a buyer who’ll take it 24/7, no questions asked and renewable energy builds out even further diversifying our power grid.

Most people think Bitcoin mining stresses the grid or view it as a stressor only which they’re not entirely wrong... if you do it badly.

But here’s what makes Bitcoin unique as a power customer:

It’s completely interruptible. A Bitcoin miner can shut down in 20 milliseconds.

AI data centers, production plants and other industrial plants can’t do something like that meanwhile Bitcoin miners flip a switch.

It pays to be flexible. ERCOT, Texas’s grid operator, runs demand response programs that pay large power users to reduce consumption during peak demand.

Bitcoin miners curtailed over 50,000 megawatt-hours in July 2025 during record heat which they got paid for and the grid got to stay stable and folks stayed safer.

It follows the power, not the other way around. It’s damn hard to move a factory to where cheap electricity happens to be because usually in those places there’s not a lot of people.

Meanwhile Bitcoin miners can be dropped just about anywhere where you can get a satellite connection and the ASIC miners running whether it’s a rural Texas wind farm, solar installations with transmission constraints, natural gas flare sites that would otherwise burn methane into the atmosphere.

A recent report from the Digital Assets Research Institute found that Bitcoin mining in Texas has saved the state as much as $18 billion by eliminating the need for new gas peaker plants.

Which by the way those plants sit idle 95% of the year and are just waiting for the handful of days when demand spikes.

Bitcoin miners do the same job except better because absorb base load when nobody needs it, shut down instantly when demand surges and generate revenue and provide jobs 24/7 instead of collecting dust.

For years, Bitcoin’s energy critics had one argument: “It uses too much power and doesn’t give anything back.”

That argument just proved itself to be completely asinine.

Bitcoin mining is now demonstrably helping renewable energy projects become economically viable.

Solar farms and wind installations that struggle with transmission constraints or negative pricing now have a built-in buyer for their excess production which allows for more research to improve their systems AND gives them funds to expand their operations.

When the grid needs power, Bitcoin miners shut down instantly, acting like a demand-side battery without the cost of actual battery storage which unfortunately batter technology is still not there yet.

When renewable energy is abundant and cheap, Bitcoin miners soak it up, preventing waste and creating revenue for energy producers.

Simon Binet, VP of Trading U.S. Gas & Power at TotalEnergies, put it bluntly: “This project aligns with our Company’s ambition to deliver innovative energy solutions that support the decarbonization efforts of energy-intensive industries.”

That’s an oil and gas giant saying Bitcoin mining helps decarbonization.

Texas hosts more Bitcoin mining hashrate than anywhere else in the United States. About 60 large-scale mining operations are now running in the state, with many more in the approval pipeline.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas now requires any mining facility consuming more than 75 megawatts to register and report power usage. ERCOT needs visibility into these flexible loads to maintain grid stability.

And here’s what’s happening: instead of viewing Bitcoin miners as a threat to grid reliability, Texas regulators are increasingly treating them as controllable load resources... assets that can be deployed strategically to balance supply and demand in real time.

ERCOT CEO Pablo Vegas testified that classifying more Bitcoin miners as Controllable Load Resources would improve grid reliability.

Right now, only 500 megawatts of the 2,600 megawatts consumed by crypto operations in Texas are registered as CLRs.

To which is a drop in the bucket of the power needs in Texas…

Except it helped to quadruple the amount of solar produced in Texas for utility-scale solar output from 11 TWh (Jan-Sept 2021) to 45 TWh (Jan-Sept 2025).

Translation: Bitcoin miners could be helping the grid even more than they already are.

The Sangha facility in Ector County is just the proof of concept. The company already has regulatory approval to scale up to 110 megawatts by July 2026.

And they’re not alone.

Other mining operations are partnering with renewable energy producers across Texas, turning what was once an energy management problem into an opportunity.

When Bitcoin critics talk about energy consumption, they’re usually thinking about the old model... miners competing for cheap fossil fuel power, adding strain to the grid.

That model is dying as it should be.

The new model?

Bitcoin miners as flexible industrial customers that make renewable energy projects more profitable, provide instant demand response during grid emergencies, and monetize stranded power that would otherwise go to waste.

Texas figured this out first. Other states are joining.

And Bitcoin? It’s not just securing a decentralized financial network anymor it’s helping to keep communities safe during times of energy crisis.

P.S. If you haven’t ordered “The Million Dollar Bitcoin” yet, do it now. This newsletter gives you headlines. The book gives you the complete thesis on why innovations like grid-stabilizing Bitcoin mining are part of the path to seven figures. Available on Amazon right now. Start reading today.