A bitcoin (BTC) mining project that harnesses Malawi’s clean, surplus hydropower has gained steam. The company behind the project, Gridless, shared that there are now “1,600 families connected to this remote mini-hydroelectric grid in the mountains of southern Malawi.”
1600 families connected to this remote hydro minigrid in the mountains of southern Malawi. They have 50kW of stranded energy that we are testing out as a new Bitcoin mining site.
Videos for context.
Still working on venting, wiring, etc. pic.twitter.com/Sxf8ABGPWH
—Gridless (@GridlessCompute) January 21, 2023
1,600 families connected to this remote mini hydroelectric grid in the mountains of southern Malawi. They have 50 kW of isolated power that we are testing as a new place for bitcoin mining.
There are context videos.
Still working on ventilation, wiring, etc.
The project taps 50 kilowatts (kW) of stranded power to test it as a new bitcoin mining site. Erik Hersman, CEO and co-founder of Gridless, told Cointelegraph that while it is a completely new mining project, the “Impact was felt immediately.”
“The power developer had built these plants a few years ago, but they weren’t able to expand to more families because they are barely profitable and they couldn’t afford to buy more meters to connect more families. So our agreement allowed them to immediately buy 200 more meters to connect more families.
Bitcoin miners are flexible but energy-hungry customers. They are a “plug in and play” solution for excess power sources around the world. In Malawi, miners run on environmentally friendly hydroelectric power.
In Herman’s words:
“The environmental footprint is quite small, as it feeds from a river. And bitcoin mining didn’t change any of that.”
It is Gridless’s second project in sub-Saharan Africa to date. Late last year, a mining project in Kenya connected a remote community using surplus hydropower..
Leaving aside the environment, bitcoin mine brings economic training and employment opportunities to Malawi. Hersman explained that power cuts are common in Malawi, but the 1,600 families that use the hydroelectric source do not have any electrical problems:
“It always amazes me how useful and valuable mini-grids are to the community. [La minería de bitcoin] it immediately changes the education, health, business, logistics and wealth of the community where they settle”.
Obi Nwosu, CEO of Fedimint and an advisor to Gridless, also shed light on the story, explaining that the “Malawi project is one more in a line of what I hope will be many examples in the coming years”.
“As usual, these are humble folks rolling up their sleeves and helping talented local engineers do what they do best. The project brings energy and financial and economic freedom to many.”
Bitcoin miners tapping into stagnant energy while empowering local communities is a growing trend in 2023. From the promise of geothermal bitcoin mining in El Salvador to load-balancing the network and sustaining jobs for local communities in Canada, there is a “torrent of opportunity on the way,” Nwosu explains.
Michael Saylor has described the bitcoin mining as “the ideal high-tech industry to put in a nation that has a lot of clean energy, but is not capable of exporting a product or producing a service with that energy”. It is an apt summary of the project in Malawi.
As a last resort, this type of bitcoin mining projects is more like a partnership. Hersman sums it up this way: “We work with the power producer, and they work to keep the price of power affordable and all of their employees are from the community too, providing jobs for everything from security to line operators to the operations”.
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