The Solar Power Trap: Why Your PV Electricity Is Becoming Less Valuable and How Bitcoin Mining Can Change That

You have a solar system on your roof, the sun is shining, and yet you're barely making any money from it? You're not alone. Millions of solar systems in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are producing more electricity than ever before, but the kilowatt hour from your own roof is becoming less and less valuable. In the first episode of The MAXX Show, our founder Maximilian Obwexer explained why this is the case and what you can specifically do about it.

The Problem: Everyone Feeds In at the Same Time

Imagine a sunny Sunday in May. You have your 10 kWp solar system on the roof, the sun is shining brightly, and your system is producing at full capacity. Sounds perfect, right? The problem: the exact same thing is happening at millions of other systems across the DACH region right now.

Industry is largely offline on Sundays. Demand for electricity is low. But supply? It's practically exploding, because all solar systems are simultaneously delivering their maximum output at noon. What happens in any market when supply massively exceeds demand happens here too: prices fall. And not just by a little.

On May 11, 2025, the spot market in Germany set a new record: -250 EUR per megawatt hour. What does that mean? Anyone who consumed a kilowatt hour of electricity at that moment didn't pay for it, but instead received 25 cents for it. Of course, only with a variable electricity tariff, but the trend is clear.

The Duck Curve: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

There is a diagram that perfectly summarises this problem: the so-called Duck Curve. It shows the residual load (the electricity demand that still needs to be covered by conventional power plants after subtracting renewable energy) over the course of the day.

At noon, the massive solar feed-in creates a deep "belly" in the curve, reminiscent of a duck's body. In the evening, when the sun disappears and people come home, demand rises steeply, forming the duck's "neck". The key message: at noon, electricity becomes worthless; in the evening, it becomes scarce.

Between 2020 and 2025, the situation has worsened dramatically. Hours with negative electricity prices have doubled. In 2025, Germany already recorded 575 hours with negative prices, spread across 110 out of 365 days. And feed-in tariffs? They continue to fall.

In some regions, the situation is even more drastic. In Tyrol, for example, there are already municipalities where grid operators are no longer approving new feed-in contracts because the electricity grid is simply overloaded. Anyone who installs a new solar system on their roof there may no longer receive any compensation at all.

Why the Common Solutions Are (Still) Not Enough

There are of course approaches to solving the problem. But none of them work at the necessary scale today.

Battery storage is a good technology and prices are thankfully continuing to fall. However, they are already fully charged after 30 to 60 minutes of midday sun. After that, negative prices persist. Seasonal storage, meaning shifting solar power from summer to winter, is still a long way off.

Hydrogen was long considered a great hope, but reality is catching up with the concept. Major research projects are being scrapped. Efficiency is below 40 percent, the required infrastructure is enormous, and the complexity is immense.

Grid expansion is urgently needed, as massive amounts of wind power are being produced in northern Germany that are needed in the south, but the transmission lines are missing. This leads to the absurd situation where wind turbines are being switched off in the north while expensive gas power plants are being switched on in the south. But grid expansion takes years, often decades.

A Solution That Already Works Today: Bitcoin Mining

This is where a technology comes into play that many people have not yet considered: Bitcoin Mining. A Bitcoin miner is a highly specialised computer, a so-called ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit). It can only perform one single type of calculation, but does so extremely efficiently.

What makes this relevant for the energy transition? Bitcoin Mining has several properties that make it the perfect complement to our electricity system.

100 percent efficiency in heat conversion. Every watt that flows into a Bitcoin miner is completely converted into heat. This is not a bug, but a feature: you simultaneously receive Bitcoin rewards and usable heat. Where you would otherwise burn gas or oil, a Bitcoin miner can heat your home while earning money at the same time.

Extremely fast to control. A Bitcoin miner can be switched on and off within seconds. Perfect for the fluctuating output of a solar system. When the sun shines, the miner runs. When a cloud passes by, it throttles immediately.

Scalable from a few watts to gigawatts. Whether a small hobby miner on a desk or an industrial mining farm: the technology works at any scale.

Geographically flexible. The Bitcoin network does not care where the computing power comes from. This means Bitcoin Mining automatically moves to where electricity is cheapest, which is exactly where there is currently a surplus.

Six Scenarios: When Does Bitcoin Mining Make Sense in the DACH Region?

Not every setup makes the same amount of sense. Here are six scenarios with varying potential:

Scenario 1: Standard electricity tariff, 24/7 operation. Does not make sense in Central Europe. Our electricity prices are too high to mine profitably around the clock.

Scenario 2: Own surplus solar power. This is where it gets interesting. Instead of feeding your surplus into the grid for an ever-decreasing feed-in tariff (or receiving nothing at all), you use it for Bitcoin Mining. Depending on the region, the Bitcoin yield can already be higher than the feed-in tariff.

Scenario 3: Solar power plus waste heat utilisation. The premium class for private use. You mine Bitcoin with your solar surplus and use the heat generated for heating. This saves you additional heating costs of around 10 to 12 cents per kilowatt hour, while also earning Bitcoin rewards on top.

Scenario 4: Dynamic electricity tariff. During the 575-plus negative price hours in 2025, you would have been paid to draw electricity from the grid, stabilising the grid while earning Bitcoin at the same time. A triple win.

Scenario 5: Balancing energy market. For larger industrial companies, it can be worthwhile to offer Bitcoin Mining capacities on the balancing energy market and step in as a flexible consumer during grid overloads.

Scenario 6: Combination with battery storage. A Bitcoin miner improves the economics of any battery storage system, because it can continuously discharge the storage and thus ensure higher utilisation. We are convinced that within a few years, every large industrial battery storage system in Europe will have a Bitcoin Mining facility alongside it.

The best strategy: combine as many of these scenarios as possible. Your own solar power, waste heat utilisation for heating, a dynamic electricity tariff, and battery storage together create a setup where Bitcoin Mining makes a great deal of sense in the DACH region.

What Hardware Is Available?

The efficiency of Bitcoin Mining hardware has improved massively in recent years. A modern Bitmain S21 Pro is approximately five times more efficient than the legendary S9 from 2017. However, these efficiency gains are slowing down as chip production is approaching the physical limits of 3-nanometer technology.

For home use, there is one key limitation: standard Bitcoin miners are extremely loud, often between 70 and 90 decibels. That is somewhere between a lawnmower and a motorcycle, so not suitable for the living room.

This is exactly where our Bitcoin heaters come in. They are designed to operate virtually silently and integrate perfectly into the living room. You heat your home while producing Bitcoin at the same time. Last winter, one such heater generated around 808 EUR in Bitcoin rewards per heating season.

Current Market: Why Now Could Be a Good Time

The so-called hash price, meaning the compensation per unit of computing power, is currently at a historic low. This sounds negative at first, but there is a flip side: hardware prices are also lower than ever. Those who enter now buy cheaply and benefit disproportionately when the Bitcoin price picks up.

Important Note

Bitcoin Mining is not a sure thing and does not automatically pay off for everyone. It depends heavily on your individual setup: do you have your own solar system? Can you use the waste heat? Do you have a dynamic electricity tariff? These factors determine whether Bitcoin Mining is worthwhile for you.

Inform yourself, do the maths, and speak with your tax advisor. In our online shop you will find a mining calculator, a profitability calculator, and a solar calculator, which you can use to run through your personal scenario.

This post is based on the first episode of The MAXX Show with Maximilian Obwexer. The show airs every Tuesday at 6:00 PM live on YouTube, X, and LinkedIn.