Topic: Kenyan energy company entices Bitcoin miners with geothermal power - page 2. (Read 390 times)

Stop looking at average rates, nobody mines at national average prices!
Do you think I would still mine at around 30 cents per kwh?

Large farms in the US manage to get 2.5-5 cents deals, nobody will set up those huge MW datacenters with 16 cents/kwh , just pick any mining calculator and you'll see nobody makes money at those tariffs. What's interesting is that Kenya is even higher there at 22 cents per kwh which really picked my curiosity..

https://www.the-star.co.ke/business/kenya/2021-10-27-kenyas-electricity-cost-fourth-highest-in-africa-study-shows/
https://www.kbc.co.ke/kenya-power-needs-radical-surgery-as-first-step-to-cheaper-electricity/

And this might be the nail in the coffin for the mining deal
I don't see how the people will accept a state-owned company selling cheap electricity to miners while they are taxed 4 or 5 times more.
Behind the curtain deals, maybe, opened offers for everyone, now way!


70% means it's still government-owned, what the government wants they will do.
I've seen enough of those energy companies turning from highly profitable to a money pit because they wanted to sell stuff cheap to rank in votes for elections, of course, you're scenario is perfectly fine and I don't doubt it might happen as it did in Georgia but it's still poor planning. When you already have spare capacity the next thing is to try to invest in the infrastructure so you can deliver this, not build more and have more energy you can't sell.

I wonder what's the "fee" for an introductory meeting there.

Whenever we talk about green and non-fossil energies I think about the cost of the devices for this kind of energy source because some people may think they green energy is always free and available so it's very much profitable for the miners to start using and consuming the green energies instead of the fossil energies buy if you consider the cost of devices required to provide these kinda energies even green energy won't guarantee anything but considering the current situation of the environment using green energies can be a good and wise option for the people and organizations who care about the environment.

Kenya have made a good decision in power generation and requesting investors invest on cryptocurrency mining out of the geothermal energy. There are discussion of transmitting the excess power generated, so that it'll bring revenue. But the real-time difficulty is big through the massive transmission loss. During the previous year Kenya have marked the highest power loss during the domestic transmission and distribution. It roughly account to 23% of the electricity produced during the year. This is why investors are asked for making use of the excess energy generated.

Some people that do not access electricity in Kenya will be people that are villagers, Kenya is one of the countries in Africa with good electricity, when the largest electricity producer in Kenya knows that it will be profitable for them and profitable for miners, they came up with the good idea. United States has one of the most expensive electricity in the world and have the largest bitcoin miners, the PPP in US is higher than in Kenya, I think this will be good idea.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/

It's truly great when there are examples like this, showing that crypto mining can be eco-friendly. Using geothermal power for mining is something, I believe, El Salvador was looking into, and it seems that Kenya is already doing it. And if the power is cheaper than hydroelectric, as Hydrogen suggested in the thread, that's also a good sign. But what are the laws regulating mining and crypto operations in Kenya? Are there taxes, are they reasonable? How hard is it to mine legally, and how dangerous is it to do so without legal registration?
And Darker45 raised an important point about inviting miners when a third of the population lives without electricity.

15 degrees sounds really good from the perspective of someone currently baking at 30+ and is thousands of miles away from Kenya. Generally people think that the whole African continent is one big hellish kitchen with a few exceptions, but the southern part of the continent seems to be quite colder than the north and the central part.


Good information that many certainly didn't know about, and it definitely makes sense when you explain it that way. This would mean that some areas in Africa actually have the potential for crypto mining, despite having high temperatures in certain parts of the year. I looked at the situation with hydropower in Africa, and in the last 2 years the capacity was 38 GW, which is about 16 percent of total consumption, and by the end of 2040 that share could be about 25%.

I understand that renewable energy is a big deal in the world right now because not only it is great for the climate, but also because it will make sure that a nation would be energy self sufficient and that is why most nations look at it.

Nobody really cares about the climate change, the whole world will become more and more inhabitable, we are looking at the summers as fire times, last year the place I was living burned to ground, it got 1km close to where I supposed to be, thankfully I ran away before it even started, and went back home, but the place I was as a holiday basically got fires all around it, with absolutely no way to get out. These are all because of climate change, and yet self sufficient energy resource is better for every nation.

Very apt, Kenya is still a third world category. They have traces of corruption, I thought they would have gotten it right when their son became the president of America. They had a better international image then.
Still my concern that people (foreigners) will be reluctant to invest in an economy that isn't trustworthy.
Darker45 mentioned above how the country cannot satisfy the electricity need of her people let alone having excess. Everything is no looking straight though.

Energy consumption is something that BTC must solve in order to evolve to the next level that is much more widespread adoption. While this does not solve the energy consumption issue per se, it's definitely a better option in the long run and it could prompt companies that deal in renewables, to invest more in crypto and in turn push the green energy narrative onto governments who, in turn, could subsidize those same companies more and encourage new companies to put their stamp on the whole issue.

From this it seems like they are only interested in making profits out of the miners by imposing taxes on them and earn through them with providing them electricity that they should be providing to the normal residents of the country.They are inviting miners which is good but this should not happen at the cost of people's need there as they are suffering without electricity.So they should focus on these matters also while adjusting mining capabilities.

Transmission and distribution of electricity are very complex and very, very costly, just because you have excessive power at point A -- doesn't mean you can't be lacking the necessary power at point B, you can solve this problem if you throw enough money at it, but then transferring power will come at a great cost of money + a good amount of it will be lost in the transmission process, the person/s receiving it need to be able to afford all that extra cost added, or else, it doesn't make any sense to invest billions of dollars to send that power to the other side of the country.

Kengen isn't 100% owned by the government, so the shareholders will probably care more about how much money they can make than supplying the poor with electricity (the government too probably doesn't care), so it really makes no difference if 30% of the people have no electricity or even 70% of them, miners can bring their containers right next to the power source which means no Step-Up/Down transformers, no expensive transmission towers, which means saving billions of dollars.

Of course, I am not arguing if it's moral to sell electricity to foreign bitcoin miners while 30% of your own people are in the dark, freezing to death in winter and melting in the summer heat, of course, it's inhuman at best, but it seems like those 30% are poor and live somewhere in the countryside, so even if the company would transfer the power there, they will either not afford to pay for it, or not use even half of it, which gives the shareholders of the company the incentive to find other clients, it's pretty damn sad to see that some people in 2022 still don't have electricity at home, but it's what it is.

I find it a little ironic that the country's main electricity producer is inviting Bitcoin miners to take advantage and purchase its excess power capacity when 30% of the population still doesn't have access to electricity.^[1] Secondly, the producer is offering excess power which is generated from free underground heat and yet Kenya has expensive electricity cost. I don't know, I somehow find this invitation a little odd.

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[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/kenya/access-to-electricity-percent-of-population-wb-data.html

From the news source it looks like the initial plan of Kenyan Energy Company is to make use of the excess energy. Already the Energy Company have got more green energy production and this is something positive about it. When it comes to supporting its own people, the company aims in bringing foreign investment into the company. This means they earn outside the energy supplied for the mining process and never think of the market. Similar thing can't be expected out of the mining support provided to its people, because the market is volatile and the same can make the Energy Company loss it's revenue.

just like someone mentioned above, corruption may deter some foreign investors to invest in this country. if they can't attract foreign miners or investors, they can always get the local support. it may improve the economic status of its people. kenya is still in the third world category, so if their people will find a way how to elevate their economic status, then why not focus first in helping their own people?

Temperature isn't exactly a huge issue, you need to move enough air fast enough, most mining gears will run just fine at 30c to 40c, it hardly gets above those temps in most places(it does go above 40c sometimes, but doesn't stay that hot for too long), but even then, a bit of underclocking will solve the issue.

The more difficult issue to deal with would be the humidity, mining in a humid place is a lot worse than mining in a hot dry place, which many people seem to overlook, moisture is worse than heat, especially if you live in coastal areas, saltwater will do more damage to your gears than temps, humidity is also a lot harder to manage than heat.

Anyway, the articles mentioned that


of course, we don't know how much they can spare, but just so you know bitcoin's current mining operations need about 15,000 MW, that's 118TWh a year.

Anyway, I think if someone wants to be "more green" would actually utilize something that lowers the carbon footprint, according to the University of Cambridge, the global gas flaring has the potential of generating 688TWh, as it stands, that's 500% more than what bitcoin mining needs, and by utilizing that, not only miners they get dirt cheap power, they will also reduce gas flaring emission that makes up about 6% of the total emission.

Some miners in the U.S have already started utilizing that "otherwise flared/wasted" gas, and I think more miners will be interested in doing something like that as opposed to sending their mining gears to Kenya, after all, "green" energy can't be that cheap.

It's a very nice development and indeed a good one for a country like Kenya. It will be fine if the company generates as much as it said as renewal energy. Let is lot be some kind of exergerated stats to attract investors.
I am sure this gesture will drive miners to the country and foster development. But my concern is how friendly the country's laws on cryptocurrencies are. Is the move of the company supported by the government?
Let it not be a situation that people will invest, after which the government will come up with their annoying and arbitrary laws to frustrate the whole process.

That’s wonderful. Renewable energy usage is at its best so this country is doing best at producing it. This is good for bitcoin mining as well as nature itself. Even I saw one interview of Elon musk where he clearly mentioned whole USA can be lighten up with the renewable energy and pointing out the usage of solar panels for the purpose.  The only thing is it’s cost and how each country look at it in building up the infrastructure for the same. They should really learn many things from the Kenya. Imagine all the cold wars regarding power consumption and high green house effects due to bitcoin mining would vanish up with this source.

I agree with you on this, miners should not just jump into this invite because there are so many other factors that must be considered before making such decisions must, especially when the company is a foreign one. There is a need for experience in the environment, what I notice with this development is the fact that this will give miners in Kenya who are correctly making development of the mining farm or are already into crypto mining in some form. I know Kenya is a tech support country so there must be some indigenous miners who will want to cut costs and operate better they will take advantage of this opportunity.

It is a very much welcome development for miners and the crypto industry at large. I guess all these counts off the somebof the original plans of El-Salvador in trying to utilise a thermal energy for this purpose. All thank to Elon whom have drawn the attention of the world to the realisation that renewable energy sources can suit better with regards to cryptos and I wonder what would be there excuses when this is mitigated against.

I'm sure miners are making all necessary considerations in contrast to this invite. It's not always easy as a foreign company, operating in a different nation, coupled with the fact that crypto projects aren't a very welcomed one around the globe and as such, you don't just jump at an invite because it solves a single problem. It's a big move and would be squarely rationalised. Hope the Kenyan government are deep in agreement to this though.

Geothermal power is cheaper than hydroelectric on average. And should represent something like a silver bullet to give miners reduced electricity costs in the industry.

The average broadband speed in kenya is around 10 megabits per second. Which should mean they have the broadband infrastructure necessary for miners to operate there in addition to low cost industrial power.

The average wage in parts of africa is $40 a month. Which could mean associate labor costs are far lower than average. On the flipside, crypto mining in africa could also perhaps help to elevate the average wage and create jobs.