The Bitcoin miner and the business Nodal Power have teamed together on a green, off-grid initiative that might be a tiny beginning for a major breakthrough.
Using energy produced by methane gas extracted from a landfill, Marathon Digital has started mining bitcoin. In Utah, a 280-kW off-grid trial project is up and running.
For the project, Marathon collaborated with Nodal Power. Launched in November 2022, Nodal Power generates electricity from landfill gas in Texas and the Southeast region of the United States. In August, it secured $13 million in a seed round to run two locations, one of which has a data center.
The experiment, according to a statement from Marathon CEO Fred Thiel, is “part of a broader initiative being conducted by the Company to validate its ability to capture methane emitted from landfills, convert it into electricity, and then use that electricity to power Bitcoin miners.“
“We look forward to expanding our footprint in this area and assisting landfill operators and others in meeting their environmental targets, should the pilot project’s results meet our expectations.”
Bitcoin miners are always looking for innovative green energy sources. For instance, Genesis Digital Assets Limited established an 8 MW hydropower facility in Sweden in August.
In late October, Marathon dedicated a 200-MW immersion-cooled plant located in Abu Dhabi’s sustainable Masdar City. That month, it published a research stating that cryptocurrency mining in landfills is feasible and offers several benefits for the environment, landfill owners, and miners. Methane is significantly more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide, according to the UN.
Marathon mined a record 2,926 Bitcoin during the period, but its earnings for the second quarter of this year fell short of forecasts. Its Q2 sales of $132.8 million was a 228% year-over-year growth.
