Marathon Digital Hardin Facility
The Marathon Digital Hardin Facility is a 57 MW cryptocurrency mining operation located at the coal fired Hardin Generating Station in Hardin, Montana, USA.
Location
The map below shows the location of the Marathon Digital Hardin Facility at the Hardin Generating Station in Hardin, Montana, USA.
Background
In November 2017 the owner of the power plant, Heorot Power, said if the company can't find a buyer for the facility, it could close by the first or second quarter of 2018, as the plant had suffered economic losses since 2014.[1] However, in late 2020, Marathon announced a partnership with the plant’s operator, Beowulf Energy, to utilize roughly 37 MW of power from the plant to mine Bitcoin.[2] According to Marathon's response to a Congressional Inquiry in July of 2022, Marathon used an average of 57 MW from the plant during September 2021.[3] An analysis by the Montana Environmental Information Center found that the plant generated power for just 75 days on average from 2017 through 2020, though in 2021, the plant operated on 323 days.[4] As a result, CO2 emissions in 2020 totaled 79,516 tons but reached 755,670 tons for the year 2021 -- a roughly 10 fold increase in emissions after the facility began to mine bitcoin.[5]
Marathon announced plans to relocate all of its mining rigs from Hardin to new sites in Texas, suggesting that renewable energy generation there will lower its carbon emissions. The company has repeatedly stated that it intends to be carbon neutral by the end of 2022. A Marathon press release from April 5, 2022 did not specify any destinations for the mining rigs within Texas, although the company plans to complete the move by the end of 2022.[6] A press release from May 24, 2022 states that Marathon's rigs will be moving to "a new 300 megawatt Compute North data center being built in Texas."[7] The only 300 MW facility owned by Compute North in Texas is its facility located near Granbury, Texas at the Wolf Hollow gas plant, which as of July 2022 has been completed. This hosting arrangement was confirmed in a July 18, 2022 press release.[8]
Marathon has also stated that it intends to deploy additional rigs at several sites in North Dakota and Texas in its mission to continue expanding its bitcoin mining capacity[8], yet the company has not provided any information about these locations nor whether or not they are derived from carbon free electricity. However, Marathon's moving of mining rigs from a coal fired power plant in Montana to a gas fired power plant in Texas calls into question its claims to become carbon neutral.
Project Details
- Power usage (MW): 57
- Owner: Marathon Digital
- Parent: Beowulf Energy
- Location: 643 Industrial Park Rd, Hardin, MT 59034
- Coordinates: 45.76423, -107.59888
Articles and Resources
References
- ↑ "Owners of Hardin coal-fired power plant announce exit in 2018". Billings Gazette. 11/17/2017. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help) - ↑ "Beowulf Energy hopes a joint venture can keep its struggling coal plant burning". Data Center Dynamics. 10/16/2020. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help) - ↑ "Seven cryptominers' response to Senator Warren" (PDF). Senator Warren. 7/7/2022. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Data compiled from Heorot quarterly air monitoring reports filed with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
- ↑ Data from EPA’s Air Markets Program Database, https://ampd.epa.gov/ampd/; see also Montana Environmental Information Center et al., Comments on Montana’s Proposed Regional Haze State Implementation Plan for the 2nd Implementation Period (Mar. 21, 2022), https://protectnps.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/03/Combined-MT-Regional-Haze-R2-Comment-Letter-Exhibits-2022-3-21_reduced-file-size.pdf
- ↑ "MARATHON DIGITAL HOLDINGS ANNOUNCES INTENT TO TRANSITION HARDIN, MONTANA BITCOIN MINING OPERATIONS TO MORE SUSTAINABLE POWER SOURCES". Marathon Digital. 4/5/2022. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help) - ↑ "https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/compute-north-hosting-marathon-bitcoin-miners". Bitcoin Magazine. 5/4/2022. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|access-date=and|date=(help); External link in|title= - ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Marathon Digital Holdings Secures Hosting Capacity To Support All 23.3 EH/s of Bitcoin Mining". Nasdaq. 7/18/2022. Retrieved 7/22/2022.
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