Stephanie Douse 
Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining company’s attempt to run its facilities on sustainable energy echoes an industry-wide campaign for all mining operations to do the same, or at the very least to employ flexible facilities.
Marathon Digital Holdings, a bitcoin miner, intends to take a significant step toward carbon neutrality by transitioning its Montana mining plant to use sustainable power sources elsewhere.
The Nevada-based corporation plans to relocate its coal-powered Hardin, Montana facility to a location that uses non-carbon-emitting energy sources. The action is intended to assist the corporation in meeting its goal of reaching full carbon neutrality by the end of 2022.
Marathon CEO Fred Thiel claimed in a business announcement that he is working to “ensure our miners are as sustainably powered as possible.”
“With the majority of our fleet already scheduled to be deployed at renewable power facilities and deployments currently underway, we believe it is an appropriate time to transition our legacy operations away from fossil fuel generation and towards more sustainable sources of power.”
Marathon’s effort for renewable energy sources at its facilities represents a trend in the Bitcoin mining business toward environmental consciousness sparked by legislators not only in the United States but all over the world.
Greenpeace has begun a campaign to “change the code, not the climate,” to pressure Bitcoin to switch to more energy-efficient technology. Meanwhile, in its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) referred to cryptocurrency as a “significant worldwide source” of carbon dioxide emissions.
Miners are now quick to advertise their eco-friendly operations. On April 4, Gryphon Digital Mining and Sphere 3D announced the cancellation of a commercial merger, and the companies made it clear in a joint announcement that they will continue to create carbon-neutral mining operations. Gryphon achieves carbon neutrality through the purchase of carbon offsets, whereas Sphere 3D has yet to respond to a request for clarification on how it is a carbon-neutral company.
Marathon is the third most valuable publicly traded firm in terms of Bitcoin (BTC), trailing only Elon Musk’s Tesla and Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy. The gap between it and MicroStrategy increased yesterday when Saylor announced that his firm purchased 4,167 BTC valued at approximately $190.5 million at the time of acquisition.
Despite the company’s dominant position in the sector, Thiel told Bloomberg in an April 4 piece that he would be willing to sell it if the appropriate offer came up. “If someone gives us a significant premium over our market cap, I have to examine it, and that may be the appropriate thing to do for the investors,” he said.
Thiel believes that energy companies would be particularly interested in acquiring Bitcoin mining operations because they would not have to worry about securing contracts to power their plants.
According to a March 2021 study, energy flexibility in mining sites can be beneficial to the environment and public electricity systems.
When the energy infrastructure is too stressed to handle the demand of Bitcoin miners, a flexible facility can generate its electricity from renewable resources. Energy firms that acquire Bitcoin miners can use excess or unused energy to power the mining machines, hence increasing cash flow efficiently.