New York Firm Gives Aging Hydroelectric Dam New Life as Bitcoin Mining Farm
DPW Holdings Inc. will use power generated by the Valatie Falls, New York hydroelectric dam for a bitcoin mining farm that is expected to become operational in the fourth quarter. Valatie Falls Hydro LLC bought the 1-megawatt dam in March 2018 using debt financing from Digital Power Lending, a DPW subsidiary. DPW’s Super Crypto Mining subsidiary will establish a cryptocurrency mining farm at the site of the dam, using the company’s AntEater miner. The company developed the cryptocurrency mining device in partnership with Samsung Semiconductors this year. The hydroelectric dam, originally built in 1983, will produce low-cost, renewable electricity for the mining farm, which will become fully operational during the fourth quarter, DPW Holdings announced in a press release.“Our successful repurposing of Valatie Falls dam to provide clean, low-cost, renewable power to Super Crypto’s future co-located mining farm is another important step in our strategy to create an economically viable, self-sustaining cryptocurrency mining business,” Milton “Todd” Ault, III, DPW Holdings CEO and chairman, said in a prepared statement. “This project provided a unique opportunity for DPW subsidiaries to collaborate and innovate to create a new model for cryptocurrency mining, for which electricity is by far the largest operational cost factor.”The company’s power solution engineers at Coolisys Technologies, Inc. worked with its cryptocurrency mining engineers and Valatie Falls Hydro, LLC’s hydroelectric engineers to retrofit the dam, Ault said.
