Jack Dorsey’s Block, Digital asset infrastructure provider Blockstream, and Tesla unite together on a new venture to construct a solar- and battery-powered bitcoin mine in U.S’s second-largest state Texas. Speaking on the ambitious project, Adam Back, Blockstream co-founder, and CEO told that the mining facility is designed to be a 100% renewable energy bitcoin mining at scale.
“People like to debate about the different factors to do with bitcoin mining. We figured, let’s just prove it. Have an open dashboard so people can play along, maybe it can inform other players to participate,” Back said.
The mining facility will be powered by Tesla’s 3.8 megawatts solar PV array and 12 megawatt-hours Megapack. In addition to that, Blockstream would release a publicly accessible dashboard that will show real-time metrics of the project’s performance, including power output and total bitcoin mined.
The blockchain tech firm said the future version of the dashboard will include solar and storage performance data points. “This is a step to proving our thesis that bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and build economic growth for the future,” Back said.
Blockstream aims to diversify crypto energy sources
The western part of Texas has abundant sources of renewable energy in the United States when combined with energy buyers like Bitcoin miners, can create financial opportunities. “Miners provide demand to these semi-stranded assets and make renewables in Texas economically viable,” according to Castle Island Venture’s Nick Carter.
Besides, Back said the off-grid mine is expected to be completed by the end of the year. If the project turns profitable in its pilot stage, the exec said, the firms would also bring wind power to the mix and scale the entire project.
“You’re making a sort of calculation of the optimal economic mix between solar and battery,” Back said. “There are 3.8 megawatts of solar and one megawatt of mining, so you can see you have to overprovision, because the peak solar input varies during the day and, of course, it’s not there at night.”
Blockstream said its ultimate goal is to strengthen the bitcoin network by diversifying the cryptocurrency’s energy sources.
