South Australia’s first solar-powered bitcoin mining centre has commenced operations in the steel city of Whyalla.

Lumos Digital Mining has inaugurated its solar powered 5 MW bitcoin data mining centre in the steel city of Whyalla, South Australia. It will be operated for the mining of bitcoins, a process which requires extensive competition of power to solve complex mathematics problems. Crypto mining has been roundly criticised in recent times for its rapacious use of energy, said to exceed annually the consumption of a medium-sized nation such as Argentina. (ABC News)

Nick Champion, the State Minister for trade and investment, said the plant marked “the beginning of a new economy out here at Whyalla,” and the fact that it was powered by solar energy indicated that bitcoin mining could be conducted in a more environmentally friendly manner.”This is important for decarbonising blockchain, which is a very energy-intensive industry,” the Minister said.

“There will be demand for blockchain, but also carbon-neutral blockchain so I think we will see more and more facilities like this,” he added.

According to Angelo Kondylas of Lumos Digital Mining, the solar operated bitcoin mining facility could produce about 100 bitcoins annually.

Another option for Lumos was to resell its solar power to other parties interested in the blockchain and crypto mining. The plant could also be adjusted to increase production in the event when energy availability from the grid was higher than usual.

Eventually, there are plans for Lumos to double the capacity of the data centre.

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