Teaser on geothermal bitcoin farm in El Salvador

Ahuachapán Geothermal Power Plant by LaGeo in El Salvador (source: ThinkGeoEnergy, creative commons)

In a recent tweet, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele teased the first stages of a planned Bitcoin mining facility that uses geothermal power. We had previously reported on the announcement of this project made also by Bukele via Twitter.

First steps…

?#Bitcoin?? pic.twitter.com/duhHvmEnym

— Nayib Bukele ?? (@nayibbukele) September 28, 2021

Bukele did not provide any details in the tweet, showing only a video of a geothermal facility with the text “First steps…” and the #Bitcoin hashtag. Still, this seems to indicate that there has been progress in this project.

Cryptocurrency mining has often been criticized as counter-productive to efforts in reversing the effects of global warming because of how much electricity it consumes. This project in El Salvador can potentially make Bitcoin mining more sustainable.

El Salvador is uniquely positioned as the country’s legislators had recently voted cryptocurrency as an official currency to complement the US Dollar. The legislation states that cryptocurrency payments will not have to be accepted by merchants in El Salvador. Cryptocurrency will also be accepted as tax payments and investments.

El Salvador currently has a geothermal power capacity of 204 MW with a potential 110 MW additional capacity. State-owned LaGeo operates and develops all geothermal facilities in the country.

Source: Coin Telegraph