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- One of the country’s oldest hydroelectric plants, the Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant in New York, is now a Bitcoin (BTC) mining operation. The plant is owned by Albany Engineering Corp (AEC), which was asked by the National Grid to repair it in 1986
- Despite National Grid’s decision to end its price concession, Bitcoin mining revenues continue to outstrip what AEC can earn from selling power
- Bitriver established a data center in Siberia in 2018, where the Soviet Union built the world’s largest aluminum smelter in the 1960s
The Mechanicville Hydroelectric Plant in New York, one of the country’s oldest hydropower plants, is currently a Bitcoin (BTC) mining facility. Albany Engineering Corp (AEC) owns the facility, which was requested by the National Grid to rehabilitate it in 1986. When opposed to selling power back to the grid, bitcoin mining provides three times the profit margins, according to Jim Besha Sr., CEO of AEC that they believe is the world’s oldest operational renewable energy facility. They can make more money with Bitcoin than we can be selling power to the National Grid. Besha stated that he is satisfied to liquidate the BTC as it arrives, expressing doubts about the crypto asset’s long-term prospects.
Despite the high-profit margins, Besha regrets not selling his electricity for use as power, but a decade of battle with the National Grid has forced him to search for other sources of income. When AEC was requested to repair the plant, it signed a deal with the National Grid ensuring that it would buy power from Besha at a subsidized rate for the next 40 years.
However, once AEC was granted autonomous status in 1993, Besha alleges that the National Grid breached its contract, resulting in a lengthy legal struggle. After a storm and a generator fire caused significant damage to the facility, National Grid decided to give up the plant, pay for repairs, and purchase power from AEC at market value in 2003. Despite National Grid’s decision to end its price concession, Bitcoin mining revenues continue to outstrip what AEC can earn from selling power. AEC isn’t the first company to use a current industry landmark to create bitcoin.
In 2018, Bitriver opened a data center in Siberia, which was once home to the world’s biggest aluminum smelter, built by the Soviet Union in the 1960s. The facility, which is now being utilized to mine Bitcoin, is also close to a big hydroelectric plant.
Coinmint stated the same year that it had secured a 10-year lease to house BTC mining hardware on a 1,300-acre parcel of property in upstate New York that had previously been used for aluminum smelting. As he said, it didn’t make sense to run a firm with such outdated equipment. Because they were ancient technology, they were exceedingly expensive to run. Besha filed a lawsuit. The deal took ten years to achieve. When Besha’s firm began work on the facility in 1986, one of the first things he did was to have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
