Sweden has welcomed a hydro-powered bitcoin (BTC) mining data center.
Genesis Digital Assets Limited (GDA), a mining and data center company generating more than 400 megawatts (MW) globally, has opened a new data center in Sweden, driven by the country’s rapidly growing renewable energy surplus.
The new plant is located in the far north of Sweden, where the grid is dominated by hydroelectric power. GDA founder and executive president Abdumalik Mirakhmedov told Cointelegraph that the new data center is located near the Porjus hydroelectric power station:
“Given the proximity to the hydroelectric power station, we expect all electricity consumption to be provided by renewable energy.”
The data center has a total capacity of approximately 8 MW and an estimated hash rate of approximately 155 petahashes per second. GDA explained to Cointelegraph that 1,900 bitcoin mining machines are deployed in the Porjus data center.
as report By Jaran Mellerud, Business Developer at Luxor Mining Corporation and a frequent Cointelegraph contributor, Sweden generates almost all of its electricity from nuclear and hydroelectric power, especially in the north.
Mellerud, from nearby Norway, explained that renewable energy is also plentiful:
“Sweden is an electricity powerhouse with the fifth highest electricity generation per capita in the world in 2021.”
GDA’s strategic expansion is part of a broader trend in the Nordic bitcoin mining scene. Christian Anders, founder of BT.CX, a Swedish bitcoin exchange founded in January 2012, told Cointelegraph that bitcoin mining is uncommon due to high energy prices.
The Nordics, however, are different, Anders told Cointelegraph:
“Sweden, Finland and Norway have a surplus of energy with negative energy prices at times and mostly renewable energy in the form of hydropower, which is located in remote areas and difficult to distribute.”
Untapped, stranded and renewable energy sources are popular feedstocks for Bitcoin mining because they tend to be the cheapest. “Sweden also has an abundance of clean energy, which is an important factor in our operations,” explained Milakhmedov.
Additionally, while some Scandinavians have a negative view of Bitcoin, Anders told Cointelegraph that energy companies are turning to the practicalities of Bitcoin mining: “The CEO of Sweden’s largest energy producer, Vattenfall, supports Bitcoin. Bitcoin mining and its use case balance in the power grid.” There is also a growing case for stabilizing the power grid through bitcoin miners in the United States.
Tim Carra, head of GDA Nordics, elaborated on this further in a correspondence with Cointelegraph:
“With abundant energy, an environment conducive to innovation and a strong education system, we believe Sweden is one of the best countries in the world to mine Bitcoin and look forward to investing further in this beautiful region going forward.”
Most of GDA’s power generation is concentrated in the US state of Texas, with one facility consuming 300 megawatts. The new operations in Sweden complement the new GDA facility in South Carolina and show that there are still some attractive, untapped potential mining destinations around the world. Anders chimed in:
“There is also a market opportunity in Spain/Portugal where they get cheap energy from Africa and their domestic solar production which is sometimes very cheap in these countries. BT.CX is working with renewable bitcoin miners to provide a way to offset the way of Bitcoin.”
As Anders mentioned, the generation of new bitcoins consumes a lot of electricity.The European Central Bank has report Bitcoin mining has a significant carbon footprint.
However, although often portray As an energy-intensive and carbon-intensive industry, Bitcoin mining consume According to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, only 149.95 terawatt-hours of electricity are generated annually, less than 0.7% of global energy.
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Meanwhile, renewable energy, including hydropower, continues to dominate the global bitcoin mining energy mix. Neighboring Norway, for example, contributes about 1% of Bitcoin hashrate and is 100% renewable, while Sweden’s newly installed GDA is another green energy Bitcoin miner.
Ultimately, Anders concluded: “It’s really cool that more and more miners are coming to the Nordic countries to help us with this mission.”
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