Volcano Energy expects to operate 20.000 megawatts (MW) of power in the future.
El Salvador is one of the countries with the greatest potential for the generation of green energy. According to statistics from the Salvadoran Association of Industrialists (ASI), in 2022, the 70 % of the country's installed energy capacity was covered by renewable energy.
The competitiveness and natural resources that El Salvador offers to produce renewable energy is what is driving a group of businessmen to mine bitcoins sustainably and at a lower cost in the country.
For this reason, a Bitcoin mining farm is currently being installed in El Salvador, which in the future hopes to become the largest in the world. With an investment of $1.000 billion, this Bitcoin mining farm will take advantage of all the renewable energy potential existing in the country to operate up to 20.000 megawatts (MW) of power.
The construction of the new green Bitcoin mining farm is being carried out by the Volcano Energy company, which has the support of the national government and is backed by companies in the crypto industry, such as Tether Limited.
Its president, Max Keiser, told El Salvador Diary The farm will be powered by a renewable energy generation park, whose energy generation capacity will be divided into phases, starting with 241 megawatts of power and gradually increasing to the target 20.000 megawatts. This park will be located in the municipality of Metapán, which was chosen for its abundant solar and wind energy potential. It will also be integrated with volcanic energy, said the businessman.
Sustainable Bitcoin Mining in El Salvador
Volcano Energy's plans to build a mega farm to mine bitcoins in a green way in the country extend until 2028, when the energy capacity of the facilities the company is building will be 100% operational.
According to the entrepreneur, Volcano Energy's renewable energy generation capacity in its first phase will be divided between 169 MW of solar photovoltaic energy and 72 MW of wind energy, for a total of 241 MW of green energy capacity. The remainder of the 20.000 MW target will be scaled up as the infrastructure to extract geothermal energy is developed, which will take around five years, he explained.
According to Keiser, El Salvador wants to “monetize the expansion into a geothermal Bitcoin mining base.” He also commented that the construction of this mega crypto mining farm highlights El Salvador’s commitment to harness the power of Bitcoin to become a leading global mining center and to be debt-free by 2030.
Backing the world's largest cryptocurrency
Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, has positioned the country as one of the most important nations for the Bitcoin ecosystem, not only by being the first in the world to declare BTC legal tender, but also through investment in the cryptocurrency at the government level, the creation of the so-called Volcano bonds, the design of a Bitcoin city and the installation of a national office to direct new policies favorable to the development and innovation of the cryptocurrency.
El Salvador also has a data center, called LaGeo SA, from which the country's government promotes sustainable bitcoin mining with energy from volcanoes or geothermal energy.
But in addition to investment and sustainable Bitcoin mining, El Salvador is also encouraging the development of Bitcoin's open-source infrastructure. Earlier this month, the country kicked off an intensive training program called CUBE +, which is aimed at young students who want to train as developers of the Bitcoin software and its payment layer, the Lightning Network.
CUBO+ kicked off last week with 21 students who will become the first generation of official Bitcoin and Lightning Network developers in El Salvador.
Continue reading: Bitcoin continues to attract tourists to El Salvador: more than 1 million visited the country this year
