Kenya’s largest energy producer KenGen has expressed interest in offering its surplus geothermal energy to bitcoin mining companies.
The plan is to have the bitcoin miners set up an energy park at the company’s main geothermal power station in Olkaria, Naivasha.
Geothermal energy in the region is estimated to be above 14,000 MW with 10,000 MW located along the Rift Valley circuit.
Although KenGen does not openly disclose its capacity, more than 80% of the company’s power is renewable energy.
Peketsa Mwangi, KenGen’s geothermal development director said, “We have the space and the power is near, which helps with stability.”
Mwangi has received offers from Bitcoin mining firms “to start with 20 MW and upscale later.”
However, since there are no bitcoin mining firms in Africa, it is speculated that the energy requests have been made by firms from US and Europe.
This move could be a direct consequence after talks of environmental groups urging the U.S. state authorities to tighten Bitcoin mining regulations started circulating in the air.
Considering the fact that Bitcoin mining consumes 204.50 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, it has been the center of criticism for quite some time now.
Ethereum, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency, uses as much electricity as the country of Netherlands.
To combat this problem, the cryptocurrency is changing its mechanism from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, which it believes will reduce its energy consumption drastically.
