The installation will go live in the next few months, and will use Tesla solar panels and battery packs to mine bitcoin in West Texas. Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream announced in Miami that the project is a proof of concept, to show that Bitcoin mining can fund the development of renewable energy infrastructure. The project will cost $12 million and be split evenly between Block and Blockstream. It will be a relatively small mining venture, with just 30000 TH/S in mining capacity, the equivalent of about 300 S19 antminers, using approximately 1 MW of power. All energy usage and hashrate will be available on a "public dashboard" to make sure that the raw data is available to all interested parties.
As you can tell, our opinion is quite clear on this matter...The integration of Bitcoin mining into global energy infrastructure is incredibly bullish not only for Bitcoin, but also for humanity. To see the human race continue to flourish, we need to develop cheap and abundant sources of energy capture, but to do so, we require the proper incentives to fund the development of the infrastructure. Between the development of energy producers such as Exxon using Bitcoin mining to reduce methane emissions, and now Block and Blockstream developing a 100% solar backed Bitcoin mine, the trend will only continue, pushing more and more energy producers into the Bitcoin mining industry using a model that can be deployed globally: Using Bitcoin mining to provide a baseload profitability for energy capture of cheap and renewable sources in remote regions, bringing energy infrastructure to the global south, producing economic empowerment and improved living conditions for billions of humans worldwide. Again...what else needs to be said?