Remember the scare-mongering of a few years ago warning that bitcoin mining would consume most of the world’s power? That it was harming the environment, and all that other nonsense?

We South Africans were all too familiar with this, having endured years of loadshedding. The private sector came to the rescue, stacked solar panels everywhere, and saved the country from blackouts.

Now it turns out that Eskom has 4,000 megawatts of spare capacity. Feast and famine. It is now looking for a market for this spare, unsold power, and of course bitcoin mining and AI data centres would be a good start.

Eskom recently did a deal with ferrochrome smelters, offering them a tariff of 62cents per kilowatt hour, about half the current tariff. That’s because only 11of our 66 smelters are currently operational, having been mothballed due to soaring electricity tariffs. Now there is a chance many of them will fire up again.

While bitcoin mining had the environmentalists frothing a few years ago, today it is data centres. Yes, the fear mongers are back, this time warning about the colossal energy thirst of AI data centres. Not only that, look out for articles on the enormous water usage of these plants. The truth is that data centres use hardly any water compared to golf courses and almond farms.

Spare electricity is what is needed for economic growth, and it appears that it is rising sharply – worldwide.