Terawulf, a bitcoin mining company, has announced the completion of its 50-megawatt (MW) stake in the Nautilus Cryptomine facility. The facility is a behind-the-meter bitcoin mining center that relies on 100% nuclear power, and Terawulf benefits from a fixed power cost of $0.02 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The Nautilus Cryptomine facility is a carbon-free data center with 24/7 baseload power that comes from the Susquehanna nuclear generation station in Pennsylvania.
Terawulf announced on April 20, 2023, that it has successfully deployed 50 MW, which translates into 1.9 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate. The mining company is in a joint venture with Cumulus Coin, LLC, for the Nautilus Cryptomine facility. Terawulf plans to add another 50 MW in future phases, and the company currently has 4 EH/s of hashpower with its 34,500 bitcoin mining devices. 18,500 machines are located at the firm’s site in Lake Mariner, New York, while 16,000 application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) miners reside at the Nautilus facility. Terawulf also uses hydro and solar power at its other locations.
Paul Prager, the chairman and CEO of Terawulf, says that the company’s team has been working diligently to achieve its goal of reaching 5.5 EH/s of operational mining capacity in Q2 2023. Currently, deploying 50 MW of mining capacity at the Nautilus facility is an essential milestone for Terawulf. The company is now poised to realize the economic advantage of deploying 50 MW of zero-carbon mining at one of the lowest contracted power costs in the sector.
Terawulf’s deployment of 50 MW at the Nautilus Cryptomine facility comes amid a declining bitcoin price. Currently, BTC prices have dropped below $29,000 per unit, down by 5.7% in the last seven days. The drop has had a tremendous effect on BTC’s average mining costs as macromicro.me statistics indicate that BTC miners are contending with the network difficulty ramping up to 48.71 trillion on April 20, which puts a strain on mining operations.
Nuclear-powered bitcoin mining could potentially provide many benefits to companies. For example, the reduced overall cost of electricity and a low carbon footprint compared to traditional fossil fuel plants. Although nuclear power facilities are costly to build, once operating, they offer a low cost of electricity that enables miners to extract more coins at a profit. With more cryptocurrencies being minted through mining, this key infrastructure will likely continue to grow and shape the cryptocurrency landscape.
The benefits of nuclear-powered mining can also extend to regional economics, particularly in rural areas with a provision for nuclear plants. As more miners set up shop, the demand for nuclear power increases, which translates into substantial economic benefits for these communities. The provision of electricity to these regions is often inadequate, which means that the addition of nuclear plants significantly solves the problem, ultimately creating an economic boom for these areas.
In conclusion, Terawulf’s successful deployment of its 50 MW stake in the Nautilus Cryptomine facility marks an exciting time in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. The ability to mine bitcoin using nuclear power brings with it many advantages such as lower costs, carbon-free mining, and the ability to stimulate regional economics. As the cryptocurrency landscape evolves, it will be interesting to see how these developments affect the industry and its future.
