Bitcoin mining represents an opportunity for Japan's largest power company, Tokyo Electric Power Company, to take advantage of the country's surplus electricity.
Japan's electric company, Tokyo Electric Power Company or TEPCO, is using Bitcoin mining as an opportunity to monetize your idle energy.
TEPCO is partnering with TRIPLE-1, a Japanese Bitcoin mining hardware provider, to create a new company dedicated exclusively to the activity. Through the new company, called Agile Energy X, the Japanese power producer plans to build a network of data centers distributed across Japan that will allow it to monetize the country’s surplus electricity by mining the cryptocurrency.
The energy company, which lost the Fukushima nuclear power plant following the natural disasters of 2011, is seeing a huge opportunity in Bitcoin mining to increase its profitability.
TEPCO promotes efficient use of renewable energy
The agreement reached between TEPCO and TRIPLE-1 will allow the construction of a distributed energy generation system to feed Bitcoin miners, while also Demand and congestion on the national electricity grid is relieved, the Tokyo electric company reported in a release.
TEPCO also stressed that Japan is rapidly moving towards building a new digital society, where the creation of distributed data centers is indispensable.
The energy company also stated that energy saving and energy conservation have become top-of-the-line issues in the country, so promoting Bitcoin mining, in addition to monetizing the energy surplus, also contributes to the efficient use of energy, reducing costs and reducing the production of carbon dioxide into the environment, he said.
Japan's power company highlighted that the surplus energy it will use through Agile Energy X to power crypto mining and its data centers will come from renewable energy sources nationwide, and said Japan's energy capacity could be estimated to double.
The company has already put into operation a test data center with a capacity of 1,5 megawatts (MW), where a total of 1.300 installed computers are operated. According to TEPCO, the data center is operating normally.
Bitcoin mining opens up new opportunities for energy companies
As cryptocurrency development progresses, more electric power companies have begun to create new solutions and projects to capitalize on one of the fastest growing and expanding industries in the last decade.
Companies like Beowulf Mining Plc, which began supplying power to bitcoin miners in 2020, have seen great opportunities in crypto mining to generate direct profits from this activity and, thus, become more profitable. Thus, instead of serving only as an energy provider, the Nordic company also began mining bitcoins directly.
Other companies such as ConocoPhillips and Exxon, both dedicated to the oil industry in the United States, are also taking advantage of their surpluses to feed Bitcoin miners with alternative energy, monetizing stranded or wasted gas from oil wells.
In March, Stronghold Digital Mining CEO Gregory Beard told Bloomberg in an interview that energy companies that have become Bitcoin producers or miners, rather than simply supplying electricity to other companies or rigs, have been able to enjoy the profit margins of up to 90% that crypto miners enjoyed in 2021.
Continue reading: Australia opens its first green, solar-powered Bitcoin mining center
