Riot Blockchain, a bitcoin mining company based in Texas, was able to fully offset the cost of a month’s electricity thanks to a government grant. It did so by voluntarily shutting down some of its miners during the month of July, thereby earning millions in power credits to “contribute to the stability of the Texas power grid.”
The company was able to mine around 318 BTC during the month of July, down 30% from last year, and valued at around $6.88 million. This was in addition to $9.5 million in power credits awarded to them for not drawing power from an already strained ERCOT power grid (opens in a new tab). This means that the company was able to mine nearly $7 million in bitcoin for free for an entire month (via Web3 works great (opens in a new tab)).
In a press release, Riot Blockchain CEO Jason Les claims that “when applied to expected power costs for the month, the power credits and other benefits are expected to eliminate Riot’s power costs for July.”
This means that Riot was still able to mine millions in bitcoin and have their July energy bill paid by Texas tax dollars.
In case you’re wondering how much power usage was saved by Riot shutting down just some of its miners, “the company cut a total of 11,717 megawatt hours in July, enough to power 13,121 average homes for a month.”
Your next machine
Best Gaming PC (opens in a new tab): The best prebuilt machines from the pros
Best gaming laptop (opens in a new tab): Perfect laptops for mobile gaming
Meanwhile, according to this report in the Texas Tribune (opens in a new tab)Texans are paying at least 50% more in electricity costs this summer as record high temperatures increase demands on the state’s energy grid.
“By returning power to the ERCOT grid during periods of high demand, the company estimates that power credits and other benefits from curtailment activities totaled an estimated $9.5 million, significantly offsetting the reduction in mined BTC.”
As of 2022, 35% of all bitcoin mining takes place in the United States, generating around 40 billion pounds of carbon emissions. Estimates say that mining one bitcoin uses the same amount of electricity as an American household over 50 days (opens in a new tab).
In April, the company announced plans to upgrade its Corsicana facility to a 1-gigawatt operation in Navarro County. Riot also has a massive 750MW plant in Rockdale, Texas.
