Blockstream, Block Inc., And Tesla To Set Up Solar Bitcoin Mining Facility Powered By Tesla Technology.

Blockstream, in collaboration with Blocks —a digital payment company— and the clean energy electric vehicle company, Tesla, are on a mission to build a Bitcoin mining facility. The facility to be built in Texas is to run on solar and battery-generated power. This innovation is a bold move away from the fossil fuel-powered facilities, that the industry is used to. The main goal of the mission is to synergize Bitcoin mining with renewable energy and eliminate environmental hazards associated with Bitcoin mining using renewable energy sources. Get more information in the body of the article.

On April 8th, 2022, the Bitcoin infrastructure firm, Blockstream, in collaboration with Tesla and Blocks (formerly called Square) announced that they had begun constructing a fully solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility located in Texas. The operation is designed to move Bitcoin mining off fossil fuel-powered generators and curb mining-induced climate hazards. The trio are pioneering this facility based on the adaptability of the Bitcoin proof-of-work.

The initiative for the collaboration started back in 2021 with Block's decision to go to clean energy by 2030. Block pledged to invest $6 million in the operation, while Blockstream will cover the rest of the $12million project.

The open-source mining facility, funded 50% by Blocks and 50% by Blockstream, will be powered by Tesla's solar and energy storage products. The aim is to rely solely on renewable energy for Bitcoin mining, use it to fund zero-emission power infrastructure, and push for economic growth, as disclosed in a tweet on Blockstream's Twitter page. The facility will run on 3.8 megawatts of renewable solar power, with battery storage of 12 megawatts/hour. The Megapack battery is of key importance, because of the absence of solar power at night.

The facility will be built on a Blockstream-owned site in Texas, the U.S. Once it is in operation, Blockstream will create a publicly accessible dashboard to show the financial metrics of the project, real-time hash rates, and how many bitcoins are being mined per second, and so on. The dashboard is meant to improve transparency and better inform discussions with the media and the public. Said Adam Back, a co-founder of Blockstream, in an interview video.

One of the benefits of the solar-powered mining facility is that the surplus energy generated can be distributed to grids in times of high demand. The operation has no certainty of being profitable because the price of Bitcoin will have to remain high for miners to make a profit off it, but it has a capacity to generate hash rates of 30 petahashes (1 megawatt) per second. The importance of solar-powered Bitcoin miners in Texas is discussed below;

Shaun Connell, executive vice president of power at Lancium, explained that without a financial incentive, there is no need to build renewable energy infrastructure. Hence, a lot of the wind and solar energy gets wasted or is concentrated in parts of the state with demand. In the presence of Bitcoin mining facilities, the need to build infrastructure to harness renewable energy will be unavoidable and create demand for these assets, making them viable and valuable in the Texas economy.

West Texas produces more wind energy than is demanded. The renewable mining facilities will act as temporary buyers to keep the energy assets in operation till all the excess energy is utilized. If the project proves to be worthwhile in its pilot stage, it will kick off completely with the addition of wind power.

In a tweet, he likened miners to raccoons drawn to places with excess unharnessed energy saying, "#Bitcoin Miners = Raccoons of Energy. Curtailing electricity is like throwing away half-eaten meals (energy calories). Pure waste. Like raccoons, miners gravitate to overflowing garbage bins where food/energy is consistently wasted."

WHAT IF Bitcoin DIPS?

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Rest assured because this model of Bitcoin mining has been done before and proved successful. But it is also known to be very risky, and dependent on the price of Bitcoin.

A miner documented his experience starting off with solar-powered mining in the desert. He said he invested $8000 on the equipments, including batteries, solar panels, power controls, and Antminer S9 ASIC processors to start the operation. The operation was successful because he revealed that he would increase his miners from 25 to 1000 by September.

The price of Bitcoin is a deciding factor in his $18 daily profit, because if Bitcoin value fell below $2000 it would be impossible for him to make a profit.

In conclusion, the solar mining operation is expected to improve the efficiency of Bitcoin mining machines, allow Bitcoin mining to operate solely on renewable 'green' energy and act as a way to mop up all the wasted energy. It will provide stable electricity and hopefully boost the price of Bitcoin in the coming years, with every increase in the hash rates per second. The project rest's majorly on Bitcoin's value remaining high.



Author: Gate.io Observer: M. Olatunji
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