The future of Bitcoin and crypto-mining could be a shift away from Asia and coal – to hydroelectric energy in the Latin America region. A Costa Rican power station supplies electricity to “hundreds of” mining rigs.
Crypto mining is still a niche business in Latin America. However, things are changing quickly for miners who were ordered to close down their rigs last year in China and faced severe disruptions in Eastern European or Central Asian regions like Kazakhstan, Georgia and Kosovo.
Environmental activists have also accused Bitcoin of being a major polluter. ( Read more: An In-depth Look at the Environmental Impacts of Bitcoin Mining
There are signs that all this may be changing. Reuters reported that more than 650 machines have been purchased from 150 customers. They now “operate continuously from eight containers,” receiving power from a hydroelectric station near the Poas River.
Eduardo Kooper owns the power station. His family also runs a company called Data Center (CR) at the site. Reuters noted that the company actually has three plants with a combined capacity of 3 Megawatts each, and that they are valued at USD 13.5m.
Kooper, who had been selling electricity to the grid from his company for over 30 years, was forced to “reinvent the business” during the coronavirus pandemic. “The government stopped buying electricity due to surplus power supply.”
He was quoted as saying:
“We had to suspend activity for nine months and I only heard about bitcoin, digital mining, and blockchain exactly one year ago. At first I was skeptical, but then we realized that this business uses a lot of energy and that we have surplus.
Data Center CR invested USD 500,000 in mining hosting innovations after this initial skepticism turned to enthusiasm.
The Data Center CR chief said that international cryptocurrency miners were looking for cheap, reliable energy and a reliable internet connection. Costa Rica is blessed with both.
Nearly all of the country’s energy comes from renewable sources. Some 72% of this is from hydroelectric plants according to data from the National Center for Energy Control. ( reported last month by TicoNews).
Kooper advised Costa Rica to follow his example and be more aggressive in trying to attract crypto mining businesses.
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