Data Center Dynamics (via Techspot) reports that US utility Talen Energy plans to build a 300 MW crypto mining facility and data center next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The company plans to build a 300 MW crypto mining facility and data center next to its Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.

Cumulus Coin, the company responsible for the crypto mining operation, is a subsidiary of Talen Energy and expects the project to be operational in spring 2022. The goal is to have at least 300 MW of on-site power by the time of completion, which could be expanded to 1 GW of capacity in the future.

To show how lucrative these crypto mining operations can be, Albany Engineering of New York has stated that mining cryptocurrency at a nearly 200-year-old hydroelectric plant is more profitable than powering customers throughout the energy grid.

Talen told DCD that the larger data center facility "will provide low-cost, reliable, carbon-free power to data center clients on campus. This allows clients to benefit from carbon-free, 24/7 power directly to the campus without the intermittency and fossil fuel requirements that renewable energy may experience.

According to Talen Energy, it has already obtained the necessary permits at the town and state level to prepare the site for groundbreaking and is applying for permits to begin construction of the first building on the Susquehanna hyperscale campus as soon as possible.

As the U.S. continues to expand its crypto mining operations, China is cracking down on bitcoin mining that runs on electricity from coal power plants in order to reduce peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. This crackdown, along with the recent price drop of Ethereum, is also the main reason used graphics cards have come on the market in China.

According to a recent report by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, bitcoin mining uses about 105 terawatt hours of electricity, more than in some countries. Some regions of the world are investing in cleaner alternative energy sources, such as hydroelectric and geothermal energy, to power some of these bitcoin mining operations.

"As energy demand increases among data centers and cryptocurrency processing clients, there is a need to decarbonize these energy sources," says a Talen spokesperson.

That sounds great, but I have to ask. Why are valuable energy resources, whether nuclear, geothermal, or otherwise, being used to generate digital money?"