Some Bitcoin industry actors are finding ways to turn the power consumption paradigm on its head. My company, Aspen Creek Digital Corporation (ACDC), is using bitcoin mining’s energy demands to stand up new renewable assets like solar, wind and batteries. Over the next three years, ACDC will help stand up a 3-gigawatt pipeline of solar energy, with current operations in Colorado and Texas – the equivalent of 6 million homes’ worth of power. Our facilities are powered by renewables that are sized greater than our needs, so we can send new, clean power to the grid. In the case of our Texas facility, we only consume 30 megawatts of the 87 megawatts of solar production; the rest is sent to Houston. Our facilities act as a giant battery for the power grid, using up power when demand is low and sending it back to the grid when homes and communities need it, such as during a storm or heat wave. ACDC proved this concept when we curtailed during the December storms in Texas: we sent our additional solar generation to the Houston grid, powering 10,000 homes over the holidays.
