Bitcoin mining apartments just weeks from opening in downtown Windsor

[Margaret's boy]

A converted two-floor commercial building has been transformed into luxury apartments. First bitcoin mining apartments just weeks from occupancy [[msn.com)

[Danny]

Let Windsor do its thing.

[Jimaz]

To me it just sounded gimmicky until I read this:

... they planned to install 180 solar panels on the roof of the 13-unit building. He quickly realized the solar panels would generate almost twice the energy the building and its occupants will use — leading him to another potential use for the extra energy: Bitcoin mining.

They have to overbuild by 90 solar panels to freeze 10 years of taxes. Okay, so it's not burning fossil fuel. I suppose on a cloudy day, the Bitcoin mining could be curtailed and when the sun comes back it could pick up where it left off. That power wouldn't be available to charge batteries or feed back into the grid though. It seems you could heat the water more efficiently by using the solar heat directly instead of converting it to electrical power first. Hmm.

[Scottathew]

For those of you wondering, this building mines for Bitcoins using solar power produced on-site and uses the heat generated to heat the building's water.

Blanchard said when he set out to develop in Windsor’s downtown, he wanted to utilize a provision of the city’s Community Improvement Program [[CIP) that freezes taxes for 10 years on LEED-certified developments — a huge economic incentive for developers, he added. LEED is a third-party, globally recognized set of standards for environmentally-friendly development.

Seeking that certification, which is currently in the works, Blanchard said they planned to install 180 solar panels on the roof of the 13-unit building. He quickly realized the solar panels would generate almost twice the energy the building and its occupants will use — leading him to another potential use for the extra energy: Bitcoin mining.


“We’re going to have all this extra solar leftover, and you either use it or you lose it,” Blanchard said. “So what I thought is we would put bitcoin mining on site.”
...

Because bitcoin mining generates a significant amount of heat, a byproduct of the computers at work, Blanchard said they designed the building so the mining would heat the building’s water supply — the first building in the world to incorporate bitcoin mining into the mechanics of the building, he said.


And because the building will generate 100 per cent or more of its own energy, the building is also net zero. The mining of bitcoin will also make money, he added, though exactly how much depends on the value of the bitcoin.

[Richard]

When the solar companies push their sales pitch,they always say you can sell the excess production back to the power company.

Here he is saying that if you do not use it you lose it,which one is it?

[Lowell]

Interesting idea. Does Ontario / Canada have provisions that allow excess homemade energy to be sold back to the grid? If not, this makes complete sense. On the other hand one could argue that having fewer solar panels might make the project more cost efficient.

Cryptocurrency mining, of which Bitcoin is the largest, currently consumes the amount of electricity that Argentina does.