Britain pays Scottish wind farms to switch off, then pays gas-fired plants elsewhere to switch back on. A new report from the Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) argues there is a better use for that surplus electricity: Bitcoin mining.

The pitch is straightforward. If the power cannot reach the people who need it, bring a buyer to the power instead.

The Numbers Behind the Wasted Wind

The scale of the problem is substantial. In 2024, Britain paid wind farms £393 million to curtail 8.3 TWh of output — curtailment being the practice of paying generators to switch off when the grid cannot carry their electricity to where demand sits — and Scotland carried almost all of that burden. According to the research findings, 98% of the curtailed output came from Scotland.

The cause is geography plus wiring. Scottish wind capacity has grown faster than the transmission lines needed to carry power south to England, where demand is highest. As a result, grid operators end up running a two-sided bill: compensating Scottish wind farms for staying idle while also paying gas-fired stations further south to ramp up.

The trend is moving in the wrong direction. The value of wind curtailment in Britain rose 91% year over year, according to the research findings — a cost line that is expanding, not shrinking.

Why the BPI Thinks Miners Fit the Gap

The report casts Bitcoin miners as buyers of last resort — operations that can soak up power that would otherwise go unused, and which do not need that power delivered anywhere.

The key selling point is flexibility. Mining rigs can ramp consumption up or down quickly depending on how much energy is available. That sets them apart from what the report calls firm loads, such as AI data centers. Those facilities require steady, uninterrupted power, which makes them a poor match for a supply that comes and goes with the weather.

A separate modeling analysis from May 2026 put concrete figures on the idea. It found that a 20 MW mining operation sited alongside a 100 MW wind farm could absorb 83% of the farm's curtailed energy. The same analysis estimated that such a setup could lift overall system revenue by 32% and raise the wind farm's effective capacity factor — the share of its maximum potential output a plant actually delivers — from 29% to 32%.

The Catch: Banks and Tax Rules

The report does not stop at the energy argument. It also flags obstacles that could keep Britain from becoming a serious Bitcoin hub.

Banking restrictions top the list. The report further points to inconsistent investment and tax rules as a drag on competitiveness.

That tension is notable because Britain's legal footing is comparatively strong. The research findings note that Bitcoin has legal recognition as property in the UK. In other words, the report's diagnosis places the bottleneck not in the energy system or in the law, but in banking access and fiscal rules — areas shaped entirely outside grid policy.

Background: A Growing UK Conversation

Bitcoin Policy UK has also published several papers and podcasts on the topic. Its focus has been on mining as a source of demand-side flexibility for the grid and as a tool to support renewable energy targets.

The mining-for-curtailment argument is not new globally. What makes the Scottish case stand out is how concentrated the waste is: nearly all of Britain's curtailment piles up in a single region behind one set of transmission bottlenecks. What to watch next is whether that combination of quantified waste and an identified buyer prompts any policy movement on the banking and tax frictions the BPI flags — the very obstacles it says could keep Britain from becoming a serious Bitcoin hub.

Disclosure: The source article was edited by John Chen and published by CryptoBriefing.