Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream and financial services company Square will be partnering to construct a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility. It will be located at one of Blockstream’s preexisting mining facilities and is part of Square’s Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative.
Square plans to invest $5 million in the facility and Blockstream will provide infrastructure and management experience, according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine.
“The facility will be a proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mine at scale, with the economics of the build out — including operational costs and returns on investment — made open to the public,” according to the release.
Blockstream will maintain a public dashboard that shows real-time metrics about the facility’s performance, including its power output and bitcoin mining yield, accessible to anyone through an internet browser. By providing this information transparently, the hope is that the facility will prove that Bitcoin can propel the world toward renewable energy.
“Many mining operations throughout the world, including our own, already rely on renewable energy because it is the most cost-effective power available,” said Chris Cook, the chief information officer and head of mining at Blockstream, per the announcement. “We’re hoping to demonstrate that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but empirically prove that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future.”
“The project will serve as an ongoing, transparent case study that will allow us to learn together the specific unit economics of clean energy Bitcoin mining,” added Neil Jorgensen, the global environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) lead at Square, according to the release. “We can’t wait to start sharing our results with the community.”
