New Alaska Bitcoin Mine Would Burn as Much Energy as the State’s Largest Coal Plant

A proposed bitcoin mine in Alaska would use natural has to produce as much energy as is produced by the state’s largest coal plant, reports Nathaniel Herz in the Alaska Beacon.

The startup planning the project, Stax Capital Partners, “recently applied for a permit with state land managers to set up shipping container-like pods housing natural gas generators and computers at a site some 30 miles south of the massive Prudhoe Bay oil field. The generators would be fueled by the basin’s huge stores of ‘stranded’ natural gas — an industry term for gas that doesn’t have a pipeline connecting it to potential customers.”

Alaska officials have been positioning the state as ideal for Bitcoin operations, which require massive amounts of energy. “But developing new industries in the region is challenging due to its remote location and steep construction costs. And oil companies on the North Slope haven’t ever sold large quantities of gas for Alaska-based data centers or Bitcoin mining, so it’s not yet known whether their asking price would be low enough to offset the higher costs of building and operating infrastructure in the Arctic.”

Phil Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, warns that the project could add to the industrialization of the fragile region and increase carbon emissions.