But at a recently set-up bitcoin mine in West Texas, the computers were turned off, with only a trickle of power flowing to keep the lights on and the air cool.
As electricity prices hit $5,000 per megawatt hour on a hot day, it was no longer profitable to run the machines that compete to verify blocks of data and win new bitcoins, with the energy costs outstripping the value of the cryptocurrency produced during those expensive midday hours.
“What we need here is more renewables,” said Michael McNamara, CEO and co-founder of Lancium, the bitcoin mining tech company that manages the small facility.
His company aims to support just that, as part of a broader push that could help boost and green the power supply of Texas – which today gets nearly two-thirds of its electricity from fossil fuels – and potentially help shift energy-hungry bitcoin’s image as a barrier to climate action.
In this windswept rural community, on the site of a dance hall where legendary Tejano singer Selena used to perform, Lancium is expanding its pilot crypto mining facility, fitted with a software system to manage the electricity that feeds it.
The operation will eventually draw more than 300 megawatts (MW) – enough to power about 60,000 homes -…
