Sazmining launches a ‘green’ Bitcoin farm in Paraguay

The American mining company Sazmining has opened a Bitcoin mining facility in Paraguay powered by 100% renewable energy. Decrypt reports.

The firm offers hosting services, managing clients’ equipment and charging a 15% fee on revenue.

The Sazmining data centre in Paraguay uses the surplus electricity produced by the Itaipu hydroelectric power plant.

The hydroelectric power plant, built jointly with Brazil, is the most expensive single facility on Earth. The plant, commissioned in 1984, cost $27 billion, equivalent to about $35.93 billion today in inflation-adjusted terms.

Kent Halliburton, president of Sazmining, noted that, due to an oversupply for a small country, Paraguay sells 5 GW of electricity at a loss to its project partner—Brazil. Bitcoin mining allows the state to derive revenue from Itaipu.

According to Sazmining, the rate for the company is $0.047 per kWh — significantly lower than what is available to it in the United States.

As of December 2022, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge estimated Paraguay’s share of Bitcoin’s hashrate at 0.15%. The United States accounted for 37.8%.

According to Russian data-centre operator BitRiver, the mining capacity in Paraguay stood at 100-125 MW in Q1 2023.

The head of Sazmining expressed confidence in the “inevitable influx of Bitcoin miners” into the country and stressed that the company had been at the forefront of this trend.

Luxor experts have named “Itaipu” as the main factor driving Paraguay’s attractiveness for Bitcoin miners.