According to local media, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, Mexico’s third wealthiest man, is considering mining Bitcoin using a geothermal power plant owned by one of his firms.
Pliego is already a well-known personality in the bitcoin industry, and his firm Grupo Dragon is utilizing the Domo San Pedro geothermal power plant (part of Grupo Salinas). The facility has a geothermal power-producing capacity of 25 MW installed.
As thinkgeoenergy.com previously reported, he is following the news of El Salvador, which became the first nation to embrace Bitcoin as legal cash, is already utilizing geothermal energy for Bitcoin mining, and has enormous aspirations.
Given the massive energy demand and the influence it has on energy consumption and accompanying carbon emissions, it is apparent that using renewable energy for Bitcoin mining has become fashionable. Ricardo Salinas’ Grupo Elektra outlets currently accept Bitcoin as legal money as a staunch advocate of Bitcoin.
However, his involvement in Bitcoin does not stop there; the billionaire is also interested in the mining industry. A Twitter post suggested this after recalling that Salinas controls Grupo Dragon, one of Mexico’s five geothermal energy companies.
Continuing the dialogue on Twitter, Salinas provided further information, indicating that the plant generates 10 MWh continually and is entirely renewable.
Using this information, one user claimed that he could utilize such energy to power between 6,000 and 8,000 Bitcoin mining rigs, known as ASICs, each of which requires 1,000 to 1,500 Wh (1-1.5 kWh).
However, if you construct such a mining farm, Bitcoin will gain the most. First, increased decentralization will be implemented, followed by more environmentally friendly mining, which is still a barrier to the adoption of firms like Tesla and Uber.