Oh well, someone is opening a nuclear powered crypto mining facility

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A report from Data Center Dynamics (via Techspot) indicates that Talen Energy, a US power company, plans to build a 300 MW crypto mining facility and data center next to its Susquehanna Steam Electric nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

The company responsible for the crypto mining operation, Cumulus Coin, is a subsidiary of Talen Energy and expects the project to go live in spring 2022, with the first phase of development having a capacity of 164 MW. The goal is to have at least 300 MW of power on site upon completion and the ability to expand capacity to 1 GW in the future.

Just to give you an idea of ​​how profitable these crypto mining operations are, the Albany Engineering Corp in New York has said it could make more money mining the cryptocurrency at its old-fashioned hydropower plant. 200 years of providing electricity to customers on all its energy. Grid.

Talen told DCD that the larger data center facility “will provide low-cost, reliable, carbon-free power to data center customers on campus. This enables customers to benefit from carbon-free power, 24/7, delivered directly on campus, without the intermittence that renewable energies can experience, or those requiring fossil fuels. ”

(Image credit: Talen Energy)

Talen Energy says it has already obtained the necessary permits at the township and state level to prepare the site for the inauguration and has applied for permits to begin construction of the first building on the Susquehanna Hyperscale Campus as soon as possible.

As the United States continues to expand its crypto mining operations, China is tackling electricity-powered bitcoin mining from coal-fired power plants in a bid to reduce its maximum carbon emissions from by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The crackdown is also the main reason why there has been an increase in the number of used graphics cards in the Chinese market, as well as the recent drop in prices of graphics cards. ‘Ethereum.

A recent report from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index indicates that bitcoin mining uses around 105 terawatt hours of electricity, which is more than some countries. Some parts of the world are investing in cleaner energy alternatives such as hydroelectric power and even geothermal power to power some of these bitcoin mining operations.

“As demand for energy increases among data centers and cryptocurrency processing customers, so does the call for decarbonizing these energy sources,” said a spokesperson for Talen.

That’s fine, but I have to ask: but why is any of our precious energy resources, nuclear or geothermal or whatever, being used to generate digital money? (The unsatisfactory answer, of course, is the word “money”.)

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