Record-breaking heat waves are being documented around the world as extreme weather is made worse by climate change. States across America continue to have temperatures above 100°F (38°C), while the United Kingdom recently saw temperatures as high as 104°F (40°C).
While hot climates may be unusual for many of these areas, Texas — a state notorious for its boiling summers — experiences higher-than-normal temperatures. The Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) recently stated that Texas power load demand has been consistently breaking records this month.
Not surprisingly, the ongoing heat wave in Texas has had a major impact on crypto miners located throughout the Lone Star State. As Cointelegraph recently reported, a number of Texas miners had to halt operations completely earlier this month in order to accommodate the load of the Texas power grid.
Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Board, told Cointelegraph that about 10 industrial-scale miners and 20 smaller-scale miners are currently in the area.
Earlier this month, ERCOT asked businesses and residents to voluntarily provide electricity during a heat wave in Texas. A Riot Blockchain spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the Whinstone facility in Rockdale is now participating in ERCOT’s Four Coincident Peak Program, noting that the facility will cut back all power to help stabilize the network during peak hours of demand. “As part of Riot’s participation in the program, in June the company reduced energy consumption to a total of 8,648 megawatt hours,” the spokesperson said.
Peter Wall, CEO of Argo Blockchain – a digital mining company that recently opened a data center in West Texas – told Cointelegraph that the company is cutting back on mining operations when ERCOT sends a conservation alert. On July 19, 2022, he said Agro had to submit to this order, along with several other mining operators in the area.
As a result, bitcoin (BTC) miners experienced the largest drop in computing power on July 21, 2022, since China banned cryptocurrency mining in May 2021. This came as a surprise to industry experts who had been anticipating the hardening of the bitcoin hash rate. Based on current trends. Frank Holmes, CEO of Hive Blockchain Technology — a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining company with operations in Canada and Europe — told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s hash rate difficulty was supposed to rise by 3% each month based on financial models, but this The case was not due to a number of reasons. He said:
“With the price of Bitcoin dropping, many S9 miners went out, or the electricity went up and miners were forced to shut down their operations. But more importantly, many devices that would have been plugged in are now unable to use it, which also reduced the difficulty.” .
Holmes noted that the decline in Bitcoin’s computing power was beneficial to Hive since its facilities were not affected by climate change or other factors. He added that new miners are being delivered to the Hive every month and the slots are being filled to accommodate the growth. However, Holmes shared that Hive continues to explore sites to create the next mining facility in Texas, which will serve as the company’s first US establishment.
Despite the harsh Texas weather for miners, Holmes explained that Hive’s method of using 100% green energy to mine both Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) would not disrupt the state’s electricity grid. Holmes explained that the future Hive facility in Texas will serve as a solar wind farm, which will not be subject to ERCOT regulations. “There are different locations in Texas that have the infrastructure we need for this. There are also credits to make sure we build a solar farm.”
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While Holmes was confident that Hive would soon operate in Texas, he made it clear that the company had big ambitions for the facility, noting that it would require 300 megawatts of power. In light of this, Holmes explained that Hive is being cautious about construction in Texas too quickly, noting that large-scale mining is risky when it comes to on-time delivery. “We don’t want to intimidate communities or frustrate our shareholders,” he noted.
