Blockstream, Block, and Tesla Join Hands to Build Solar-Powered Bitcoin Mining Facility

Blockstream announced today the construction of a new solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility in collaboration with Block (formerly known as Square) and Tesla.

According to a CNBC report on Friday, the facility will be completed later this year.

Blockstream will provide mining tools and engineers that will construct the facility. The firm will also provide reports on the project’s performance.

Tesla’s 3.8 megawatt solar PV array and 12 megawatt-hour megapack will power the facility, the report added.

Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back noted that the facility is being built to prove Bitcoin can be mined with 100% renewable energy and fund zero-emission power.

“People like to debate about the different factors to do with bitcoin mining. We figured, let’s just prove it. Have an open dashboard so people can play along, maybe it can inform other players to participate. This is a step to proving our thesis that bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and build economic growth for the future,” he said.

Neil Jorgensen, project lead for Block’s Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative, noted that the facility will further accelerate Bitcoin’s use of renewables.

Block and Blockstream initially announced this move back in June with the former investing $5 million in the project and the latter providing infrastructure and expertise to build it.

As part of its continued strong support for Bitcoin in January 2022, Thomas Templeton, the general manager for hardware at Block, revealed that the company is building a Bitcoin mining system to solve pre-existing Bitcoin mining computational issues.

Meanwhile, governments and regulators around the world have largely disapproved of Bitcoin mining operations due to its alleged negative environmental impact.

Last month, members of the New York State Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee voted to move ahead with legislation that would ban Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) mining operations in the state for a period of two years.

However, the bill has not been passed into law, as it awaits approval from state lawmakers and a signature from the governor, Kathy Hochul.