Marathon Digital will use landfill methane to mine Bitcoin in Utah pilot venture

by Jeremy

Marathon Digital has begun mining Bitcoin (BTC) utilizing energy generated from methane gasoline siphoned off a landfill. The 280-kW off-grid pilot venture is working in Utah.

Marathon teamed up with Nodal Energy on the venture. Nodal Energy was launched in November 2022 and produces power from landfill gasoline within the southeastern United States and Texas. It raised $13 million in a seed spherical in August to function two websites, one among which features a knowledge heart.

A Nodal Energy datacenter. Supply: PRNewswire

Marathon stated in an announcement that the venture is “a part of a broader initiative being carried out by the Firm to validate its means to seize methane emitted from landfills, convert it into electrical energy, after which use that electrical energy to energy Bitcoin miners.” Marathon CEO Fred Thiel stated:

“Ought to the outcomes of the pilot venture meet our expectations, we stay up for increasing our footprint on this space and serving to landfill operators and others meet their environmental targets.”

Bitcoin miners are actively looking for new inexperienced producing options. Genesis Digital Property Restricted, for instance, arrange an 8-MW facility in Sweden in August that makes use of hydropower.

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Marathon minimize the ribbon on a 200-MW immersion-cooled facility in Abu Dhabi’s sustainable Masdar Metropolis in late October. It launched a report that month that discovered crypto mining at landfills is sensible and has an a variety of benefits for miners and landfill homeowners, in addition to the setting. Based on the United Nations, methane is way extra damaging to the setting than carbon dioxide.

Marathon reported second-quarter earnings this yr fell wanting expectations, even if it mined a document 2,926 Bitcoin within the quarter. Its Q2 income elevated 228% year-on-year to $132.8 million.

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