Would the French government prefer to undermine bitcoin rather than selling its electricity? Or is he trying to stay their hands clean, letting the machines do the dirty golden digital work? Unless he is content to observe, regulate, correct if necessary. Opinions vary, the debates heat up, but a fact remains: the idea crossed the threshold of the National Assembly.
In short
- The deputies offer to use electric surpluses to supply French Bitcoin mining farms.
- The project hopes to generate up to $ 150 million annually via an allocated gigawatt.
- The target law of French companies, installed near power plants, to revive existing industrial wasteland.
- Mining also makes it possible to recover heat to heat housing, greenhouses or energy -consuming industrial sites.
The bet of surplus: a French strategy to enhance the excess electricity
While the debate around the future digital euro already agitates European institutions, could France secretly prefer to bet on bitcoin? The idea may seem iconoclastic, but in a bill Deposited on July 11, 202572 deputies of the national rally, accompanied by 4 colleagues from the Union of Laws for the Republic, put on the table an idea that makes people talk in the hemicycle: to use the electric surplus to undermine bitcoin. And not on the margins. This isA life size, over five yearsin centers installed near production sites.
“” It is imperative to put an end to this absurd logic in scientific and economic terms, and to enhance our surplus electricity in order to stabilize the network while preserving our nuclear fleet », We read in the presentation of the patterns.
The calculation is simple: the Repeated modulation of power plantsimposed by peaks in the production of renewable energies, costs the infrastructure dearly and is translated as sales at a loss. Why not transform this burden into an cryptocurrency opportunity? Bitcoin may well become the unexpected regulator of an electric mix in full transformation.
Bitcoin, Europe, kilowatts: a model already experienced beyond borders
France does not invent anything. She catches up. In Iceland, Norway, Sweden and even Pakistan, the mining has already taken root where excess electricity was looking for takers. The argument of the proposition quotes these foreign cases abundantly.
At Texasthe mining farms are interconnected at Ercot network To go out in a few minutes during requests. In Finland, a 2 MW farm heats 11,000 homes via the heat released by the machines. In Norway, similar installations warm aquaculture greenhouses. These examples are there, visible, audited.
As Clara Chappaz, French Digital Minister underlines:
The use of the energy surplus to undermine bitcoin is a good example of a debate that has been monopolized by an extreme fringe of the political arc, while it is a real subject.
This apparently technical debate becomes political as soon as it is a question of energy sovereigntyEDF debt and reindustrialisation. At this hour, France does not yet have its large national mining farm. But that could change.
When bitcoin heats up ideas: towards a French crypto infrastructure?
The ambitions do not stop at speculation. The bill is considering heat recoveryreindustrialisation of wasteland, local development, energy sovereignty and Birth of a new industrial section.
It is a whole logic that is reversed: consumers of electricity poorly sold to producers of numerical value.
Some figures to remember:
- 1 Gigawatt allocated to Mining Bitcoin = 100 to $ 150 million per year, according to the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (Adan);
- 70 % of French electricity comes from nuclear: stable, predictable, decarbon;
- 5 years of experimentation, supervised by decree of the Council of State;
- 3 seconds: average time of extinction or ignition of a mining RIG, in response to network voltage;
- 1 Decree expected to define the eligibility criteria and secure the operation.
Even the Minister of Digital, however prudent, opens a door: ” We must examine this without ideology, ask the right questions ».
It remains to be seen whether the state will dare to press the switch. The disused sites await, the kilowatts are there, foreign actors strike the door.
“Bitcoin made in France” is already on everyone's lips. In Normandy, negotiations are well advanced with the Sultanate of Oman to set up the first industrial farm in Mining. The Flamanville EPR and the future Penly power plant would provide energy. A page may turn for the French crypto.
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