The process of mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies requires a huge supply of electricity. That's what made Stronghold Digital Mining buy its own power plant.
Stronghold recently purchased a Scrubgrass power plant in Venango County, Pennsylvania, USA. They spent USD 105 million to open the power plant, which uses waste coal as its power source.
The power plant currently burns 600 tons of coal waste annually, which is enough to power 1,800 bitcoin mining computers.
Not only that, last August Stronghold also bought a second power plant in Pennsylvania, namely the Panther Creek power plant, and plans to buy a third power plant in the near future.
Although it does not use environmentally friendly sources in its power plants, Stronghold claims to be a company that is profitable for the environment. This is because they use unused materials produced when mining coal, which can damage the environment.
Then they will give the reclaimed land that was previously contaminated with coal waste to the local government, in this case the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
Well, according to the DEP, Stronghold has so far helped restore more than 1000 acres of land in Pennsylvania. But it should be noted, even though using unused materials, burning coal waste still produces large amounts of carbon dioxide.
Bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies are often criticized for not being environmentally friendly. This is because various activities related to cryptocurrencies require a very large amount of electricity.
For example, a bitcoin transaction, including the resources required to mine the coin and verify the transaction, requires a total of 1,700 KWh of power.
Then the electricity consumption index from the University of Cambridge estimates that bitcoin miners spend around 130 terawatt hours (TWh) each year.