(Yicai Global) Dec. 6 -- China’s southernmost province of Hainan issued a new policy last week to curb cryptocurrency mining by charging firms in this energy-guzzling sector an extra CNY0.8 (13 US cents) per kilowatt-hour for electricity, China Central Television reported today.

Hainan’s government listed cryptocurrency mining as a sector to be eliminated in a document released on Dec. 3, the report said. Companies in the sector must now buy electricity from Hainan Power Grid and not participate in electric power market transactions at lower prices, it said.

Chinese provinces such as Qinghai, Yunnan and Sichuan as well as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region banned crypto mining in May. The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, also issued a document in September calling for a crackdown on the sector.

Cryptocurrency mining consumes huge amounts of energy and does not have a positive driving effect on industrial development or technological progress, NDRC spokesperson Meng Wei said last month.

Blind and disorderly development of the sector could impact energy conservation and the drive to reduce carbon emissions, Meng said. She also previously said that China would charge crypto miners punitive electricity prices.

Editor: Tom Litting