"Residents in the small town of Granbury are raising alarms over noise from a local Bitcoin mine, while state lawmakers warn that the energy-hungry facilities risk “crashing” the electrical grid."
"GRANBURY, TEXAS — Cheryl Shadden cannot sleep. The 61-year-old nurse, who works at hospitals giving patients anesthesia, says she is kept up at night by the nonstop mechanical whir of fans spinning to cool tens of thousands of computers.
Shadden lives in Granbury, Texas, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth, with her seven dogs, six horses, six cats and a parrot. In 2022, after 23 years in the area, Shadden got a new neighbor: a 300-megawatt Bitcoin facility, referred to as a “mine,” where computers run around the clock to help maintain a global network of transactions in the cryptocurrency.
“Nobody in their right mind would live here,” Shadden said. “My windows rattle. The sound goes through my walls. My ears ring, 24/7.”
Since the facility opened, Shadden said her animals are restless, and some of her dogs have pulled out their own fur. In late June, Shadden went to a doctor to get her hearing examined, and tests found she had suffered permanent hearing loss. She believes her animals’ behavior and her hearing loss were caused by the noise from the Bitcoin mine."
Keaton Peters reports for Inside Climate News July 10, 2024.
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