El Salvador sees greener crypto-currency mining in its future By Reuters

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) – El Salvador’s unfolding experiment as a first-adopter of the crytocurrency bitcoin might be more and more powered by new streams of renewable power, the chief of the nation’s hydroelectric fee informed reporters on Friday.

Power-intensive cryptocurrency “mining” is finished by computer systems, and has come underneath criticism from environmentalists as a giant supply of demand for principally fossil gasoline derived electrical energy.

Final month, El Salvador grew to become the primary nation to undertake bitcoin as authorized tender alongside the U.S. greenback, which for years had served because the nation’s sole official foreign money.

Daniel Alvarez, president of the state-run Lempa River Hydroelectric Govt Fee (CEL), stated El Salvador has the potential to generate electrical energy by hydroelectric, photo voltaic, wind and tidal energy tasks.

“The chances are infinite right here, it is nearly willpower and that we now have the means and the flexibility to start out these tasks,” Alvarez stated.

The Salvadoran authorities in September started harnessing geothermal power for bitcoin mining from a plant on the base of the Tecapa volcano, 106 kilometers (66 miles) east of the capital, that’s owned by an organization which is a part of CEL.

The plant generates about 102 megawatts, and the federal government plans so as to add one other 5 megawatts subsequent yr. At current, 1.5 megawatts are being allotted for bitcoin.

Alongside the plant, officers have arrange a room inside a delivery container to deal with 300 computer systems that course of cryptocurrency transactions.

The Tecapa plant together with one other geothermal plant in northwestern El Salvador provide between 23% and 24% of the nationwide energy grid, based on authorities.