According to a press release issued on Tuesday, Bitcoin mining company Genesis Mining revealed a new pilot project that aims to use excess heat generated during production to heat Swedish agricultural greenhouses.
According to the announcement, this project in Sweden has been developed for more than a year. The goal is not only to recover excess heat energy, but also to support local governments’ plans to increase self-sufficiency in food production.
Mattias Vesterlund, a senior researcher at the Swedish Research Institute (RISE), explained: “A 1 MW crypto data center will be able to use competitive products on the market to increase local self-sufficiency by up to 8%.”
In addition to Genesis Mining and its philanthropic subsidiary Hashpower For Science, the project also received support from Systemair, Lulea University of Technology, RISE, Boden Business Agency and local government.
“This project is exciting because it has the opportunity to contribute to the expansion of the food industry while achieving the national energy efficiency goal. This is the first of many projects in the “Energy Symbiosis” program, and hope the results show that it is very likely It will be expanded to large-scale commercial production,” added Nils Lindh, director of data center development at the Boden Business Agency.
During the trial period of the project, Genesis Mining created a special Bitcoin mining thermal storage container, which was connected to the greenhouse through a custom duct system used to transmit excess energy.
According to calculations conducted by Luleå University of Technology, even in the cold Swedish climate, a 550 kW mining container is enough to heat a 300 square meter greenhouse. Andreas Johansson, a senior lecturer at Lulea University of Technology, pointed out: “But the potential of mining is much more than that.”
“In this calculation, the temperature difference in the greenhouse is only 10 degrees, because we assume that the output temperature is 35°C and the greenhouse temperature is 25°C. If the DC output is increased to 55°C, the heating area of the greenhouse can be doubled, It reaches 900 m2,” he explained.
Genesis Mining CEO and co-founder Marco Streng said that although Bitcoin mining is the backbone of all decentralized Crypto assets that are rapidly changing the world (it can be said to become better), these benefits “can’t be done at the expense of the environment. cost”. According to media reports, Bitcoin’s energy consumption has increased and is now comparable to the energy consumption of the Czech Republic
He added: “We look forward to expanding the project, and we will not only build more of these data centers ourselves, but also bring the benefits of this technology to others.”