And… it’s been yielding 3x more than selling electricity to the national grid
The Hydroelectric Plant in Mechanicsville, New York, is one of the oldest hydroelectric plants in America, built in 1897. However, in the 1980s, preparations began to close it, but instead Albany Engineering Corp leased it. for 40 years, thus preventing its closure. But now they have the brilliant idea to start using it for Bitcoin mining.
Power is generated by seven turbines with a total capacity of around five megawatts, and it is completely original equipment that has not changed since 1897.
That’s how it was;
Nowadays.
And because of its low capacity, Albany Engineering Corp head Jim Besha had to look for more profitable applications for the generated electricity… It was then that he discovered that bitcoin mining yielded about 9 cents per kilowatt-hour, while selling electricity to the national grid only 3 cents.
According to him, this is “the best way to mine bitcoin” because the energy from the hydroelectric plant is totally renewable and ecologically correct. Jim Besha says that he immediately sells the extracted bitcoins as he considers the cryptocurrency an unreliable store of value due to the strong instability of its rate.
However, not all the energy generated by the hydroelectric power plant is spent in bitcoin mining… The company is in that “let’s see what happens” phase. Jim Besha says he’s afraid of using mining as the sole source of income, especially since now in New York they’re about to pass a law that completely bans cryptocurrency mining in the state.
