Agile Energy X Inc., a subsidiary of Japan’s biggest power producer, Tokyo Electric Power Co., is exploring Bitcoin BTC/USD mining to curb the wastage of renewable energy and foster its widespread adoption.
What Happened: The Tokyo-headquartered subsidiary plans to power Bitcoin mining — the process through which new units of the leading cryptocurrency are created and pushed into circulation using renewables, as reported by Asahi Shimbun.
Kenji Tateiwa, the president of Agile Energy X, said the motivation to start this project came in response to the large-scale “output control” implemented by Kyushu Electric Power Co., another well-known Japanese energy company. This control necessitated renewable energy producers to adjust their output or temporarily cease power generation to avert oversupply, resulting in wasted energy capacity.
Agile Energy X has set up machines near solar farms to mine Bitcoins in situations where power is anticipated to be produced in excess of demand and hence wasted.
“What we are doing has few parallels in Japan,” Tateiwa stated.
Fred Thiel, CEO of leading Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital praised the initiative, saying, “Innovative Japanese utility company mines Bitcoin to utilize surplus energy….maybe US utilities should wake up and smell the roses.”
Why It Matters: Such grid-balancing efforts are common in the U.S. too, especially in the southwestern state of Texas, the country’s Bitcoin mining hub.
Miners typically power up their operations when there is an excess capacity of electricity, while drastically lowering the when the state requires more usage.
For instance, Bitcoin miners in Texas played a crucial role in stabilizing the state’s power grid during the heat waves of June 2022 and September 2023. The miners’ ability to rapidly scale down their operations helped prevent blackouts, demonstrating how cryptocurrency mining can be integrated with power grid management to optimize energy usage.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was exchanging hands at $57,044.71, up 3.08% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Ethe was trading at $2,286.01, up 0.15%.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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