Agile Energy X, the subsidiary in question, has cleverly placed its bitcoin mining units right next to solar farms in the Tochigi and Gunma prefectures
A subsidiary of Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), one of Japan’s largest electric utilities, has begun mining bitcoin with unused renewable energy. The move is part of an effort to find new uses for excess green energy and ultimately increase the adoption of renewables in the country.
TEPCO’s satellite company, Agile Energy X, has placed its bitcoin mining units next to solar farms in the Tochigi and Gunma prefectures. These farms generate photovoltaic power, but to prevent an energy oversupply, some of the output is curtailed or controlled, often rendering it completely useless.
However, Agile Energy X’s mining units can now step in and make use of this otherwise discarded energy, putting it to work for another purpose. According to the company’s simulations, if renewables account for 50% of Japan’s energy systems, 240,000 gigawatt-hours of energy will be completely wasted.
“What we are doing has few parallels in Japan,” Agile Energy X’s President Kenji Tateiwa told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “Success of our framework would prompt more green energy to be introduced.”
Renewable energy is often wasted due to the inability to quickly adjust supply and demand. As a result, some renewable energy projects are being canceled or postponed. However, bitcoin mining can provide a flexible and scalable demand sink for excess renewable energy.
“Green energy producers have to operate their businesses on the assumption that part of the power they generate is wasted,” the Agile Energy X executive explained to Asahi Shimbun’s reporter Daiki Koga. “If bitcoins were to provide a new source of income for similar power producers, who are being exposed to overinvestments, that would prompt more green energy to be introduced.”
TEPCO, which powers over 27 million homes and businesses, is also exploring other ways to use bitcoin mining to support the grid. In March, the company announced a pilot project to install bitcoin mining equipment at a hydroelectric power plant. The project will aim to demonstrate how bitcoin mining can be used to quickly absorb excess electricity generated by the plant and stabilize the grid.
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