The TSXV-listed Bitfarms has signed a contract with a private electricity supplier in Argentina to consume up to 210 MW of electricity for a bitcoin mining data centre.
🤝🏻 Bitfarms today provides an update regarding its expansion project in South America 🌎
🔗 More Info: https://t.co/xCcIUH3l4k
☝🏻 $BITF $BFARF #Bitfarms #Bitcoin #BitcoinMining #Blockchain pic.twitter.com/E1wAyuHVhj
— Bitfarms (@Bitfarms_io) April 19, 2021
The agreement runs for eight years. In the first four years, the effective cost of electricity will be $0.022 per kWh.
After full deployment of the project, the Bitcoin mining break-even point will be reduced by 45% — from $7,500 at the end of Q4 2020 to $4,125 under current network difficulty parameters.
Bitfarms estimates that 210 MW is sufficient to support 55,000 latest-generation miners.
Power supply is planned directly from the generating facility, with no connection to the local distribution network. This will ensure uninterrupted operation of the mining centre during periods of power outages.
The agreement expands the memorandum of understanding signed in October 2020. That document contemplated electricity supply at roughly $0.02 per kWh for a 60 MW Bitcoin mining centre.
The expansion was spurred by a year-round climate favourable to miners. It eliminates the need for costly immersion cooling equipment.
The facility is planned to be completed by early 2022. The new data centre will provide geographic diversification and reduce risks ahead of the upcoming halving in 2024.
Bitfarms plans to deploy less efficient miners in Argentina. Owing to cheap electricity tariffs, this equipment will continue to generate cash flow and support the company’s hash rate. An additional 48,000 ASIC devices ordered in March will also be installed at the mining centre.
By the end of 2021, the company expects to increase the hashrate to 3 EH/s, and by the end of 2022 to 8 EH/s.
Earlier in April, DMG Blockchain Solutions, Bitfarms’ Vancouver-based competitor, purchased 3,600 ASIC miners for Bitcoin mining.
On April 16, the hashrate of leading Bitcoin mining pools sharply declined amid power supply problems in several Chinese provinces.
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