Solar ‘Bazooka’ Bitcoin Mining Heats Up Stock Amid Europe’s Energy Crisis

by · October 6, 2022

It’s another win for Bitcoin miners and the environment. A Dutch Bitcoiner has installed a Bitcoin (BTC) miner in a warehouse to replace the heating system powered by natural gas.

Why? Because it is cheaper, more environmentally friendly and uses solar energy.

Bert de Groot is the founder of Bitcoin Brabant, a Dutch company that helps “companies adopt the Bitcoin standard.” He is always on the lookout for untapped sources of energy, and ways that Bitcoin mining can improve business efficiency while saving money and the planet.

In a greenhouse this year, for example, Bert installed Bitcoin miners to maintain the perfect temperature for flowers to bloom while reducing reliance on polluting natural gas. So naturally, when Bert learned that a warehouse owner had 50 megawatt-hours (MW/h) of electricity to spare while his natural gas heating bill went through the roof, he saw an opportunity for Bitcoin mining.

Bert told Cointelegraph that the warehouse (whose owner prefers anonymity) had a 50 MW surplus of electricity from a solar installation on the roof. It’s “quite a lot,” he joked.

The roof panels run warehouse operations, but the company burns natural gas to heat the warehouse. Even worse, despite having a surplus of energy that can be sold to the grid, grid controllers in the Netherlands do not reward contributing spare capacity – even if it is solar. Bert continued:

“You put so much sun on the roof, and you don’t get anything back for the extra you put back into the grid. So what we did was we put in the (Bitcoin) miner.”

Bert installed a Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro (104Th), known as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that consumes approximately 25 MW per year. It lives in a “Bazooka,” an aptly named house that shoots out hot air to heat the entire warehouse. Being a Bitcoin miner, it not only generates heat but also income as it solves valid blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain.

The bazooka heater that targets the warehouse. Source: Bert

The introduction of the Bitcoin miner solves three problems: First, the Bitcoin miner is an efficient way to harness excess renewable energy into something profitable. Second, Bitcoin miners generate enormous amounts of heat, which can be used as a radiator if harnessed properly. Third, while burning natural gas to heat storage is polluting, a solar-powered Bitcoin miner is environmentally friendly.

Currently, natural gas prices are rising in Europe due to scarcity. As a result, the cost of heating the warehouse continues to rise. Solar energy, by comparison, is abundant, and once the start-up costs are paid off, solar energy is almost free. To cap it all, the warehouse’s carbon footprint is now negative. Bert summarizes:

“So we had [burned] a lot of natural gas as well as electricity that was already there — that was renewable. So we basically switched to a carbon negative warehouse with heating.”

In numbers, the switch from natural gas heating to Bitcoin mining will prevent the burning of 2,000 cubic meters of gas each year, which is roughly equivalent to “a household and a half” of the average Dutch home.

The Bitcoin miner occupies a space in the corner of the warehouse. Source: Bert

Even better, the Bitcoin miner pumps out constant heat – ideal for a Dutch winter where temperatures are between 0 and 6 degrees Celsius – unlike an intermittent natural gas heater.

Related: “Green oasis” for Bitcoin mining: Norway has almost 1% of the global BTC hash rate

The solution is a win for the warehouse, the environment and for Bitcoin. In a chirpingshared Bert, “Bazooka version 8 is now in full swing. Thank you for all your support in being able to keep businesses warm while natural gas prices are so high.”

So presumably Bert’s phone must be ringing as warehouse owners across the country catch wind of Bitcoin mining’s hot revolution? Not quite, Bert explained:

“In his network [of the warehouse owner] everyone thinks he’s crazy. So let’s see in a couple of months when it’s winter, like real winter, what happens.”

Bert remains optimistic about the future of Bitcoin miners being used as a heat source, so he has kept some ASICs on hand. – I expect that there will be more. You know, it’s getting colder, that [natural gas prices] becomes more expensive. It pays for companies to do that,” he concluded.