Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG), a crypto mining company in Pennsylvania, is turning waste from old power plants into energy to power hundreds of Bitcoin mining rigs.
The company collects coal tailings, a waste material left over from the coal mining process, and burns it in what it says is an emissions-controlled environment at its power generation facility.
Coal tailings can cause a number of environmental problems, including water and air pollution, and acid mine drainage, the acidic water that comes from coal mining operations. Collecting this waste and safely disposing of it while generating power for crypto mining is a productive way to tackle the problem.
The state of Pennsylvania is the third largest producer of coal in the United States, Dear put the amount of coal waste at 881 pounds per 2,200 pounds mined, or 400 kilograms per ton. Stronghold estimates that Pennsylvania alone has more than 220 million tons of harmful waste.
Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies have recently caught the attention of regulators due to their reliance on energy-intensive processes to mine and validate the network.
Earlier this month, a New York state proposal to suspend proof-of-work mining that uses fossil fuels was introduced, citing the negative environmental impact of the process, that proposal was introduced today by the New York State Assembly. If approved, proof-of-work mining could be suspended for up to 3 years in New York.
Related: Bitcoin Mining Could Be Good for US Energy Independence: Research
Other schemes have seen ways to make Bitcoin mining environmentally friendly. Earlier this month, the oil drilling company ConocoPhillips started a program in North Dakota in which sell the natural gas by-product of its operations to Bitcoin miners instead of burning it.
Last August, Argo Blockchain, a UK-based crypto mining company announced that its operations had become "climate positive" on their greenhouse gas emissions. His planned 200 MW mining facility in Texas it is also configured to run on renewable energy.
