The facility leverages renewable energy to support ag production
A Canadian ag company recently acquired a Bitcoin mining facility.
AgriFORCE out of Vancouver, B.C., purchased a facility in Sturgeon County, Alta.
These facilities, sometimes referred to as farms, can house “hundreds of computers and high-tech equipment whose sole purpose is solving hashes and discovering, or earning, the new crypto coins, Science for Georgia says.
AgriFORCE’s new facility is powered by 1.2 MW of natural gas energy and currently has 130 bitcoin mining units. It can support up to 250 units.
These facilities, however, create high amounts of heat and emissions.
Which AgriFORCE plans to leverage into agricultural production.
“By repurposing waste energy from flare gas-powered generators, the facility reduces environmental impact and drives multiple revenue streams, including bitcoin mining and agricultural operations such as micro-greens, red seaweed, and white-legged shrimp farming,” Jolie Kahn, CEO of AgriFORCE, said in a statement.
AgriFORCE wouldn’t be the first Canadian company to meet at the intersection of cryptocurrency and agriculture.
Bruce Hardy, president of Myera Group, has been leveraging bitcoin mining into food production in Manitoba.
Heat from the computers, for example, helps keep plants warm in a greenhouse.
“It’s all connected, much like Earth,” he told CBC in 2018.
And in Europe, some farmers developed business relationships with Bitcoin miners to help their operations.
A Dutch flower farmer, for example, provided solar energy from her greenhouse roof for the miners.
Then the heat from the computers helped support the growth of the flowers inside the greenhouse.
“The most important thing we get out of it is we save on natural gas,” flower farmer Danielle Koning told European media in 2022.
Farms.com has contacted AgriFORCE for comment on its new opportunity in Alberta.