Clean Spark Inc., a “clean” bitcoin mining firm, says it has obtained a second data center in the town of Norcross, Georgia. The move is designed to boost the amount of bitcoin and crypto the company extracts from the blockchain, and the new center encompasses approximately 87,000 square feet.
Clean Spark Buys Into Bitcoin Even More
Clean Spark is now expected to extract as much as 18 new bitcoin units per day. The new data center was formerly a Sprint/Nextel firm. Covering more than seven acres, the data center cost just over $6.5 million for Clean Spark to purchase. Installation of the mining infrastructure is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Clean Spark is an entirely carbon-neutral company. The firm operates in Georgia’s Simple Solar program, which means that it gets all its electrical power from solar energy sources. This has been a particularly hot topic as of late given how much controversy bitcoin mining has caused in recent weeks. Several companies and individuals have become convinced as of late that the world is going to turn to dust thanks to bitcoin and crypto mining.
Two of the biggest investors of all time – Elon Musk and Kevin O’Leary – have come out to condemn the practice, with Musk even going back on his goal to accept crypto payments for Tesla vehicles and products. He states that he has concerns about the mining process and cannot accept said payments until he is certain that emissions go down and miners decide to resort to greener tactics of extracting new crypto units.
O’Leary has also stated that he will not purchase any more bitcoin mined in China given that the country primarily uses coal to power all its mining facilities.
Keeping Things Clean
CEO and president of Clean Spark Zach Bradford claimed in an interview:
This facility, with its 20 MW of power, will allow us to put over 6,000 additional S19s into operation. It is expected to produce over 650 PH/s upon installation. Based on current difficulty rates, this processing power would result in an additional five to six bitcoins per day. This, along with our other initiatives, is expected to result in 2.0 EH/s by the end of 2021 which, at current difficulty rates, would result in 17 to 18 bitcoin per day. We have been working on several opportunities to increase our bitcoin production capabilities, including energy expansion in Atlanta, our partnership with Coin Mint, and now the purchase of this facility to increase the total energy capacity in our portfolio. We have over 23,500 S19 ASICS miners that will be delivered over the coming year. Planning for responsible energy expansion has been paramount. Our focus on ESG has been at the forefront of all our efforts and we expect to lead sustainable practices in the industry.
