- A Bitcoin mining farm in Ohio has secured a deal to use nuclear power to fund a future operation
- Standard Power is building a Bitcoin mining farm in Ohio and will use “clean, sustainable, locally generated nuclear electricity”
- Bitcoin mining has come under intense scrutiny in recent months for its energy use
A Bitcoin mining farm in Ohio has agreed a five-year deal with a nuclear power plant to supply nuclear energy to its operations in another example of clean Bitcoin mining. Standard Power announced on Monday that it has entered into the deal with Energy Harbor Corp. to provide “clean, reliable, carbon-free electricity from its nuclear fleet” which will power a new Bitcoin mining facility that is due to open at the end of the year.
Standard Power Celebrates “Groundbreaking Climate-friendly”
Standard Power advertises itself as an ‘infrastructure as a service’ business for blockchain mining operations and other industries requiring high performance computing applications. The “groundbreaking climate-friendly” deal with Energy Harbor will see it repurpose an abandoned paper mill in the area into a “state-of-the-art facility”, with power drawn from the Perry Nuclear Power Plant on the banks of Lake Erie. Standard Power will also power down the site if demand from residents in the area increases.
Clean Bitcoin Mining is Taking Over
Standard Power are clearly conscious of the recent criticism of the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining, making it clear that their operation respects these criticisms:
(The deal) also enables the company to achieve its sustainability objectives by powering the Bitcoin blockchain mining center with Energy Harbor’s clean, sustainable, locally generated nuclear electricity.
These thoughts were echoed by Maxim Serezhin, Standard Power’s Chief Executive Officer, in the press release:
Bitcoin blockchain mining centers are energy intensive, and we recognize our responsibility to build a more environmentally sustainable future. We selected Ohio because of its low electricity costs with availability of carbon-free sources of energy. By partnering with Energy Harbor, we have proactively structured our hosting capabilities to ensure that 100% of the power associated with this facility is carbon-free.
If Bitcoin mining firms can continue to make headlines like this then they might go some way to redressing the overly negative headlines that have proliferated the space this year.
