Not only are they reducing the cost of the power by owning the power plant outright they will increase the efficiency of producing it. There is nothing that comes close to the cost of power produced from coal and gas when those plants are running 24/7 at full capacity. They will also be greatly reducing the loss of power during transmission since the crypto rigs will be nearby.
https://www.powermag.com/group-buys-pennsylvania- ... in-mining/
A digital mining company has an agreement to purchase a second power plant in Pennsylvania, as the group increases its coal refuse reclamation operations in the state to provide energy for its bitcoin mining operations.
Stronghold Digital Mining, a bitcoin (BTC) miner headquartered in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 3 said its purchase of the Panther Creek Plant, located on 33 acres in Nesquehoning, in Carbon County, adds 80 MW of generation capacity to its portfolio, which also includes the 85-MW Scrubgrass plant. Scrubgrass is located on 650 acres in Scrubgrass Township, in Venango County.
It also appears the nuclear industry will be positioning themselves to do the same thing.https://grist.org/technology/bitcoin-greenidge-se ... ocurrency/
But when Greenidge reopened in 2017, there wasn’t any more demand than there had been when it shut down. By 2019, the plant was no longer producing power for the public at all. In an attempt to claw back the tens of millions that Atlas invested to convert the plant to natural gas, Greenidge turned to mining Bitcoin. By March 2020, the plant was reportedly using over 14 megawatts of power, enough for roughly 9,000 homes, to mine around $50,000 worth of Bitcoin per day. As of this writing, that same amount of Bitcoin is worth about $300,000. The plant is now one of the largest cryptocurrency mines in the country, and it’s angling to get even bigger.
Meanwhile the consumer will be paying for more expensive power those plants could be supplying....https://www.inquirer.com/business/cryptocurrency- ... 10806.html
The owners of several nuclear power plants, including two in Pennsylvania, have formed ventures with cryptocurrency companies to provide the electricity needed to run computer centers that “mine” bitcoin. Since nuclear energy does not emit greenhouse gases, the project’s investors say, the zero-carbon bitcoin would address climate concerns that have tarnished the energy-intensive cryptocurrency industry.