Kenyan energy company entices Bitcoin miners with geothermal power

[franky1]

Frankly, Franky1 you're very brilliant and intelligent. I must say the limitations of utilization Bitcoin in Africa topic was inspired by you!
Honestly, reading your profile gave me insight to write that topic.
A bit hard to assimilate at times, but, I must say you're good!  I hope you giggle and Chuckle at these, me don't flatter!!

i do try to keep things in 'normal-speak' wording. by using analogies and examples.. and not use much techno buzzwords, where i can avoid it. but that creates 'walls of text' of length explanation.. which some hate. which i then try to re-explain differently or even use images. so i do try to cater to the general viewer.

as for africa.
the USE of bitcoin is hard due to the fee average being more than an a couple minimum wage hours in kenya
https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_transaction_fee - time of post over $1.50 (year average)
https://www.blockchain.com/charts/fees-usd-per-transaction - time of post over $1.50 (month average)
https://www.minimum-wage.org/international/kenya - $0.40/hour ($830 per year /52wk /40hour)

but if they have the right location near a cheap cost power producer thats green and has alot of excess capacity not being used.. then why not go for it.

however. again mentioning the minimum wage costs..
the cost of buying just 1 asic of say 140terrahash (~$12k) works out as being 30,000 labour hours to save up enough money to buy one.

where as an american/brit. at ~$10 an hour can afford one within 1200 labour hours (25x less time)
yep what would be for an american is 0.6(31 weeks) of yearly minimum wage. but is 14x(14 years) of kenyan minimum wage
so i doubt local kenyans will be mining bitcoin in kenya and this invitation is more so for US/Brits to move to kenya and mine cheap

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[Flexystar]

Whether this would be beneficial or not entirely depends on how the powering company and miners reside in the region. Just having geothermal energy does not mean it will benefit the miners. There goes so much planning setting up the miners around this plant. Considering it’s “geothermal” meaning the region has huge heated up climate which will hamper the mining conditions a lot. Like they might need extra electricity for cooling them down.

Also after reading few posts in the thread it seems the electricity won’t be that cheap as compared to traditional one. If they are in for extra energy production then wondering why other businesses are not blooming in that region?

Could it be Geo location ?

[Uang_kartal]

kenGen seizes opportunities faster,welcome to kenya on a very good agenda.some countries are already bitcoin literate.and these miners are contributors and earners of foreign exchange earning productively from day to day.Very suitable,reference resource for an industry If in the majority of countries that are aware of the importance of the economy, it will certainly open up equal opportunities and be legally (known to the government) and open. Bitcoin is indeed not entirely legal in a country that has not acquired it. Of course, this is not always the case.
miners are the resilience of the network and bitcoin is the source of the unrestricted economy.good job kenGen

[BIT-BENDER]

If this happens it would be awesome I would love to see a green mining and my joy is greatest seeing a developing country like Kenya doing this, one of the biggest global problem about mining has definitely been the fact that it isn’t all that eco friendly and if this issue can be resolved I think many people who have more reason to adopt it especially those who firmly advocate for a more environmental approach.

[franky1]

Whether this would be beneficial or not entirely depends on how the powering company and miners reside in the region. Just having geothermal energy does not mean it will benefit the miners. There goes so much planning setting up the miners around this plant. Considering it’s “geothermal” meaning the region has huge heated up climate which will hamper the mining conditions a lot. Like they might need extra electricity for cooling them down.

Also after reading few posts in the thread it seems the electricity won’t be that cheap as compared to traditional one. If they are in for extra energy production then wondering why other businesses are not blooming in that region?

Could it be Geo location ?

geo thermal does not mean all of kenya has warm ground..

EG iceland is a cold climate. yet they have geo thermal energy

it means within a mountain (usually inactive volcano). a power company built a facility that drills deep into the mountain/ground and uses the heat from far far underground to then power the turbines..
it then has electric cable bringing the electric away from the immediate area where a couple miles away businesses connect to the grid, no where near the mountain/volcano/geothermal hotspot.

yep only a few hundred metres away can be where you wouldnt even know geothermal ground was there.
..
as for the businesses question
many businesses have to analyse the feasibility of running a business. EG retail requires customers, meaning they will only set up in a region where there is enough population to sell enough product to make profit. even companies given 100% tax breaks, and free electric or free building leases dont just turn up without atleast knowing if they are going to have customers to sell product to.. and also employable people to work in the business.

however bitcoin mining doesnt need to care about population numbers. or need to build any fancy glittery retail stores. they can literally turn up in shipping containers. plug in the electric and start mining, which is why this would be appealing for bitcoin miners

as the link said in the topic post.

kenya has a capacity of 10,000MW but only using 800MW, meaning they are only running at 8% capacity and not earning a potential 92% right now.
they would love to be running at a few thousand MW and get more income, which would then bring the average price per kwh down as the power plant costs can be diluted by the more power used.

[Darker45]

~snip~

Thanks for the effort of illustrating your point. But that's the same line of argument. The same set of words translated into a picture. Again, electricity is a public utility. It is a basic service. Everyone deserves it however remote one's village or community is from urban centers. The government is tasked to ensure that the country's population have access to it and enjoy its benefits. The big difference between the government and private companies is that the former is service-oriented while the latter is profit-oriented. It could get involved in multi-billion projects without a direct ROI. That further means the former, unlike the latter, doesn't always measure things in monetary gains or even numbers. We have an island somewhere in the middle of the ocean hundreds of kilometers away from the mainland with only less than a couple hundred citizens in less than 50 families. Although its people cannot enjoy the kind of lifestyle large cities could offer, at the very least the National Power Corporation provides them electricity.

Apologies, OP, for the off-topic discussion.

[yazher]

Miners really need partnerships such as this one because they were being attacked by those who made propaganda that they are one of the main reasons for the current global warming which is not true. If they worked with this company and made every bitcoin miners use green energy, their critics would shut their mouths and look for other false information but when it comes to power consumption the people will likely believe what those critics have said. so they really need to consider trying this one in order to preserve the miner's future.

[buwaytress]

it's really chilly. Right now actually 15 degrees Celcius,

while UK/US are in a spring summer season.. right now kenya is entering its autumn winter season
so dont compare temperaures day to day. as its an unfair comparison to compare one places summer to another places winter

based on year average
kenya enjoys 17^oc(winter: july-august) to 21^oc(summer: feb-march)

where as say.. texas america is 13^oc to 30^oc

Of course not comparing day to day but giving an idea of how cold it can be there and just how suitable it does appear to me. The dust is a problem though, it always seems to be clogging up machines, filters, fans, but I did mention this as part of other factors that all need to be looked in combination if you wanted to mine.

I think the cold (low comparison) is pretty cool but the high comparison actually is more impressive... 30 degrees in Texas compared to 21 degrees in Kenya? Pretty cool.

[Kakmakr]

In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2021 Kenya is ranked 128th out of 180 countries for corruption, tied with seven other countries, including Bolivia, Azerbijan, Laos, and Paraguay - Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Kenya  (So they are doing very well or they are very good at hiding it) 

In any way, the price of the electricity that are provided...should make provision for some discount to the miners to run air-conditioning 24/7... because the temperatures are quite high for Bitcoin mining to be profitable. 

[goldkingcoiner]

https://cointelegraph.com/news/kenyan-energy-company-entices-bitcoin-miners-with-geothermal-power

The country’s main electricity producer has issued a general invite for Bitcoin miners looking to take advantage of its renewable energy facility near the capital, Nairobi.

Kenyan energy company KenGen has put out a call to Bitcoin miners to move nearby and buy its excess renewable power capacity.

KenGen claims 86% of its energy is generated from renewable sources, mostly geothermal from pockets of ground source heat in the Great Rift Valley. Local news outlet The Standard reported that KenGen has space at its new industrial park in Olkaria, near its flagship geothermal power station, which could be rented to Bitcoin (BTC) miners.

The Acting Director of geothermal development at KenGen Peketsa Mwangi said that his company was willing and eager to have the miners call Kenya home.

Bitcoin is going more green, see a country electricity producer calling out for crypto miners to come to their country for crypto mining to mine with green energy, the electricity producer in Kenya, KenGen said 86% of their electricity generation are generated from renewable source. Bitcoin mining is becoming a business in the world that some organizations in a country see that they can make profit from. This will favour Kenya government in earning from bitcoin mining.

That is very nice news!

I always support greener ways of producing electricity. And if you couple that with Bitcoin you can get a nice PR package for two things we should all support.

It doesn't matter where in this world someone mines their Bitcoin. A huge plus that people never seem to mention.

Furthermore more miners will help boost Kenya's economy. Win win 

[franky1]

It doesn't matter where in this world someone mines their Bitcoin. A huge plus that people never seem to mention.

there actually is a difference.
for instance
kazahkstan industrial mining has about $0.04/KWH rate of electric(once you include everything needed)

US residential (home hobby mining) is about $0.12/kwh
EU/UK is about $0.24 average
places like japan/germany can be upto $0.39

so each different region has different costs.
its where the 'value' window' kicks in of 0.04-0.39 which converts to different mining costs.

whereby right now kazahkstan for instance is mining cheaply and able to sell at $30k for a profit. where as japan are not able to mine cheaply but see that buying bitcoin at $30k is 2.5x cheaper than wasting money mining. so they will just buy it cheap.

kenya offering to accept bitcoin miners would need to tempt them with cheap electric costs worthy of setting up in the area.

..
its also worth noting the regions average electric prices to get a sentiment of value if you learn how to calculate mining costs because with energy prices rises, many asic farms on electric supply contracts of X month terms, might expire and have to pay new rates, which affect the value window.
also looking at the different rates in different regions helps you understand the 'support lines' and resistance lines of the markets by knowing where most people think its either cheaper to mine or buy when prices pass over these thresholds.

EG if bitcoin passes over a certain level americans flip from being cheap BTC buyers to cheap miners(to sell) so the sentiment flips over in favour of more sellers than buyers at certain support lines
..
in regards to kenya. because they are moving out of the international trade of fossil fuel their energy costs might become less impacted by the world wide rise in energy prices (the more self sustainable they are the cheaper they can offer electric).