El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has ordered the state-owned LaGeo, which runs geothermal energy, to draft a plan for mining Bitcoin facilities.
“I’ve just instructed the president of LaGeo to develop a plan proposing Bitcoin-mining facilities powered by very cheap, 100% clean, zero-emission renewable energy from our volcanoes. This will develop rapidly,” Bukele said.
I’ve just instructed the president of @LaGeoSV (our state-owned geothermal electric company), to put up a plan to offer facilities for #Bitcoin mining with very cheap, 100% clean, 100% renewable, 0 emissions energy from our volcanos 🌋
This is going to evolve fast! 🇸🇻 pic.twitter.com/1316DV4YwT
— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) June 9, 2021
According to ThinkGeoEnergy data, geothermal energy accounted for more than 20% of the electricity consumed in the country as of 2020. With an estimated potential of 644 MW, about a third was being used.
After his statement, the Salvadoran leader clarified that the mining hub would be designed around a newly commissioned 95 MW geothermal well.
On 9 June 2021, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly passed a bill on recognition of Bitcoin as an official means of payment.
According to Forbes, Bukele discussed the law with more than 20,000 listeners in a Twitter audio room hosted by Nick Carter. During the discussion, the president was asked whether he had plans regarding cryptocurrency mining.
He mentioned the possibility of using geothermal energy, part of which is lost due to the distance from consumption points and transmission issues.
“We want to promote industrial parks around power plants where one can set up a factory and access cheap, clean, renewable energy,” he noted.
In his view, such parks could be ideal sites for hosting mining.
Some Bitcoin supporters in the president’s tweet comments noted that El Salvador could become one of the world’s largest centers for mining cryptocurrencies on renewable energy.
If all 644 MW of the wasted geothermal energy was used, El Salvador would become one of the largest #Bitcoin miners in this hemisphere, while also being 100% renewable.
— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) June 9, 2021
As discussions about the environmental viability of mining intensified after the statement by Tesla founder Elon Musk, ForkLog examined the topic in a piece:
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