Genesis Mining uses excess heat from Bitcoin mining to heat greenhouses

Bitcoin mining company Genesis Mining has revealed a new pilot project that aims to heat agricultural greenhouses in Sweden using excess heat from the production process, according to a press release published Tuesday.

According to the announcement, the project in Sweden has been in development for more than a year and aims not only to recover excess heat but also to support the local government’s plans to increase self-sufficiency in food production.

“A 1 MW infill data center would be able to increase local self-sufficiency by up to 8% using competitive products on the market,” explains Mattias Vesterlund, a senior researcher at the Swedish Research Institute (RISE).

In addition to Genesis Mining and its philanthropy subsidiary Hashpower For Science, the project is also supported by Systemair, Lulea Technical University, RISE, Boden Business Agency and local government.

“This project is exciting because of the opportunity to contribute to the expansion of the food industry while meeting national energy efficiency targets. This is the first of many projects under the Energy Symbiosis programme and hopefully the results will show that it has the potential to be scaled up to large-scale commercial production,” added Nils Lindh, Director of Data Centre Development at Boden Business Agency.

During the pilot project, Genesis Mining created special Bitcoin mining heat storage containers that were connected to the greenhouse via a custom duct system used to transfer excess energy.

According to calculations conducted by Lulea University of Technology, even in the cold Swedish climate, a 550 kW mining container would be enough to heat a 300 square meter greenhouse. “But the potential of mining is much greater than that,” noted Andreas Johansson, a senior lecturer at Lulea University of Technology.

“In this calculation, the temperature difference in the greenhouse is only 10 degrees, because we assume an output temperature of 35°C and a greenhouse temperature of 25°C. If the DC output is increased to 55°C, the heated area of ​​the greenhouse can be tripled to 900 m2,” he explains.

Marco Streng, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Mining, said that while Bitcoin mining is the backbone of all decentralized digital assets that are rapidly changing the world (arguably for the better), these benefits "cannot come at the expense of the environment." According to media reports, Bitcoin's energy consumption has grown to the point where it is now comparable to the energy consumption of the entire Czech Republic.

He added: “We look forward to expanding the project and not only building more of these data centers ourselves, but also bringing the benefits of this technology to others.”