Comment by brndnmtthws

Let's also acknowledge that the "sky is falling" proclamations around Bitcoin mining energy use are based on numbers that aren't even close to accurate. Current network hash rate is about 12EH/s, and an Antminer S9 does about 14TH/s at 1372W. Thus,

    (12000000THs / 14THs) * 1372W = 1,176,000,000W

Which is about 1.176GW. The article cites 8.27TW, which is off by several orders of magnitude.

QED.

Edit: numbers maybe not so far off after all, as it appears to say 8.27TWh/year now.