Hydroelectric power plants are for sale amid China’s crackdown on crypto mining
Small hydropower plants have been put up for sale in China as the demand for their cheap energy plummets after government crackdown on crypto miners. Just like mining rigs, their prices have come down, leaving owners with limited options to recoup their investments.
Ads for hydropower plants appear on the Xianyu Marketplace
Advertisements for small hydropower plants recently appeared on the Xianyu online marketplace, the South China Morning Post reported. The “used” systems have an output of around 50 megawatts. The number of these offers has increased significantly since the government offensive against cryptocurrency miners began in May.
Three vendors have confirmed to the daily that the power plants have been sold for mining and one owner noted that their prices have fallen. Another seller, apparently trying to convince potential buyers, pointed out:
You can secretly mine cryptocurrencies when you buy a hydroelectric plant.
Some of the facilities on offer are in China’s Sichuan province, where local officials reportedly ordered over two dozen crypto-mining facilities to cease operations earlier this month. The region is rich in water resources that provide cheap electrical energy. Local authorities have historically promoted the symbiotic relationship between bitcoin miners and hydroelectric plants.
Small hydropower plants are turning to crypto mining
Low-capacity hydropower plants have also spread to other water-rich regions, with local governments supporting both private and public institutions. The plants have been instrumental in electrifying remote rural areas in China, where they have helped save energy, control floods and alleviate poverty.
The Yangtze River Economic Belt, which includes nine Chinese provinces, is an example of this cooperation. According to the state industry medium China Energy News, 25,000 small hydropower plants were in operation at the end of 2020.
But not everything went smoothly, the authorities blamed the power plants for environmental damage and ordered shutdowns. In the Yangtze Belt, around 20,000 of these institutions had to take measures to comply with state standards. A station vendor suggested that operators turned to cryptocurrency mining because they weren’t allowed to connect to the power grid.
It is also believed that environmental concerns are behind the government’s crackdown on energy-intensive Bitcoin mining and other industrial activities that could jeopardize Beijing’s carbon neutral goals. China plans to cut emissions to 65% of 2005 levels by 2030. Other affected provinces besides Sichuan are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Yunnan.
The subsequent exodus of cryptocurrency miners from the People’s Republic also flooded the used markets for ASIC and GPU mining rigs. The excess caused unit prices and hashrate to drop rapidly, which led to Bitmain’s decision last week to stop selling mining hardware and international spot shipments.
Do you know of any other consequences of the Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrency mining? Let us know in the comment section below.
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source https://bidsfor.me/hydroelectric-power-plants-are-for-sale-amid-chinas-crackdown-on-crypto-mining/
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