The Finns will use bitcoin mining to… heat their homes

By supplying electricity to a bitcoin mining farm via a nuclear power plant, the heat released by this farm can be used to heat buildings.

Hashlabs Mining, a company specializing in bitcoin mining, has launched a project to generate heat produced by bitcoin mining using the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant in Finland. In detail, the plant will supply electricity to the installations of the bitcoin mining farm, and the heat released by this farm will be used to heat several buildings.

Finnish district heating systems aim to replace used fuels with waste heat from industrial processes to reduce costs and CO2 emissions. By replacing fuels with waste from industrial processes, district heating plants will electrify part of their heat production. With the help of bitcoin miners, Finland will be able to increasingly use its Olkiluoto nuclear power plant to produce heat.

Bitcoin farms will use the Whatsminer M63S (a hydro-cooling system) which can provide hot water at around 70°C. This heat generated in the installations in the form of hot water will circulate in underground pipes to individual buildings connected to the system. The heat will be large enough to power certain buildings in the city via district heating. In short, this new project is designed to allow households to benefit as much as possible from the industrial mining of bitcoins.

“With the help of industrial consumers like bitcoin miners, Finland can now increasingly use its large nuclear power plant to produce heat,” Jaran Mellerud, co-founder and CEO of Hashlabs Mining, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), on April 23.

The price of electricity was 19 cents per kilowatt hour in the first half of 2023 in Finland, according to Eurostat (latest data available), thanks to the alliance of nuclear and renewable energy. In France, the price of electricity was 22 cents per kilowatt hour in the first half of 2023 (25 cents in June 2024). For its part, the price of electricity in Germany was 42 cents per kilowatt hour in the first half of 2023, one of the highest prices in Europe.