In East Africa, a Bitcoin BTC mining project that uses clean, stranded and excess hydro energy in Malawi, a landlocked country in southeastern Africa, has gained ground.
The company behind the project, Gridless, tweeted that there are now “1600 families connected to this remote hydro minigrid in the mountains of southern Malawi.”
The project exploits 50 kilowatts (kW) of stranded energy to test out as a new Bitcoin mining site. Erik Hersman, CEO and co-founder of Gridless, told Cointelegraph that while it’s a brand new mining project, the “impact was immediately felt.”
“The power developer had built these powerhouses a few years ago, but they weren’t able to expand to more families because they’re barely profitable and couldn’t afford to buy more meters to connect more families. So, our deal allowed them to immediately buy 200 more meters to connect more families.”
Bitcoin miners are flexible but energy-hungry clients. They are a plug-in-and-play solution for sources of excess energy around the world. In Malawi, the miners run off environmentally friendly hydropower.
The environment aside, the Bitcoin mine brings economic empowerment and job opportunities to Malawi. Hersman explained that electricity load shedding is common in Malawi, but the 1,600 families using the hydropower source do not have any power issues:
“It’s always amazing to me to see how useful and valuable mini-grids are to the community. It [Bitcoin mining] immediately changes the education, healthcare, business, logistics and wealth of the community where they go in.”
Also Read: Exxon Mobil To Start Bitcoin/Crypto Mining In Nigeria.
Obi Nwosu, CEO of Fedimint and a board adviser at Gridless, also shed light on the story, explaining that the project in “Malawi is one more in a line of what I expect to be many examples over the coming years.”
“As usual, these are modest people rolling up their sleeves and helping talented, local engineers do what they do best. The project brings power as well as financial and economic freedom to many.”
Bitcoin miners tapping into stranded energy while empowering local communities is a growing trend in 2023. From El Salvador’s promise of geothermal Bitcoin mining to balancing the grid load and sustaining jobs for local communities in Canada, there is a “torrent of opportunities coming their way,” Nwosu explains.
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