Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Subsidiary Mines Bitcoin With Surplus Energy

According to a report from Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s oldest national newspapers, a subsidiary of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has taken an innovative step into the world of bitcoin mining. Agile Energy X, the subsidiary in question, has cleverly placed its bitcoin mining units right next to solar farms in the Tochigi and Gunma prefectures, harnessing renewable energy to power the process.

TEPCO, one of Japan’s largest electric utilities, powering over 27 million homes and businesses, has a satellite company called Agile Energy X that’s diving into bitcoin mining with leftover renewable energy. These mining operations are strategically placed next to solar farms that generate photovoltaic power.

However, to prevent an energy oversupply, some of that output is curtailed or controlled, often going to complete waste. Agile Energy X’s bitcoin mining units step in to make use of this otherwise discarded energy, putting it to work for another purpose.

“What we are doing has few parallels in Japan,” Agile Energy X’s President Kenji Tateiwa told the newspaper. “Success of our framework would prompt more green energy to be introduced.”

Renewable energy can create a lot of wasted energy the Asahi Shimbun report notes and because Japan is aiming to be carbon-free by 2050, more renewables will be coming online, which essentially means more waste.

The newspaper quotes Agile Energy X’s simulations stating that 240,000 gigawatt-hours of energy will be completely wasted if renewables account for 50% of Japan’s energy systems. Tateiwa thinks that if more power plants realize they can mine BTC too, we could see an increase in green energy production over time.

“Green energy producers have to operate their businesses on the assumption that part of the power they generate is wasted,” the Agile Energy X executive explained to Asahi Shimbun’s reporter Daiki Koga. “If bitcoins were to provide a new source of income for similar power producers, who are being exposed to overinvestments, that would prompt more green energy to be introduced.”

by Jamie Redman| Original Link