KenGen, Kenya’s largest power generating company, has been approached by several cryptocurrency mining companies to establish a base at the company’s upcoming energy park.
Crypto mining is the process of creating new crypto coins through the solution of exceedingly difficult math problems that verify bitcoin transactions. The miner receives a predefined amount of bitcoin when a bitcoin is successfully mined.
According to a local article, the crypto enterprises are among a list of businesses that require a lot of energy and wish to use KenGen’s geothermal power producing hub in Olkaria, Naivasha, Kenya’s rift valley.
Peketsa Mwangi, Acting Director, Geothermal Development at KenGen is quoted saying:
“We’ll have them here because we have the space and the power is near, which helps with stability. Their power requests vary, some of them had asked to start with 20MW to be later graduated…crypto mining is very energy-intensive.”
He did not divulge how many companies have expressed interest, but he did say that their power requests began at 20 megawatts (MW). An energy park, sometimes known as an industrial park, is a separate area used and intended for clean energy development, such as wind and solar producing facilities, according to KenGen.
The company announced in February 2022 that it had completed plans for the energy park, which would take advantage of the reasonably cost geothermal steam.
The park will have industrial, commercial, and recreational facilities and will be built in two phases, with the first phase expected to be completed in 2022.
KenGen currently provides over 72 percent of Kenya’s electricity, with over 80 percent of that coming from renewable sources. The company’s total installed generation capacity is 1,818MW, with 713.13MW (39.2%) coming from geothermal, 825.69MW (45.3%) from hydro, 253.5MW (14.1%) from thermal, and 25.5MW from wind (1.4 percent ).
One of the most common criticisms of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has been the high need for electricity during mining, which has raised concerns about the environmental impact.
Sourced from BiTKE