Energy Harbor Corp., the former FirstEnergy Solutions, is getting into the bitcoin business... well, kind of.
The Akron, Ohio-based power generator has struck a 5-year partnership to provide carbon-free electricity from its nuclear power plants to a bitcoin mining center in Coshocton, Ohio, beginning in December.
Standard Power in Coshocton wholesales electricity to and provides hosting for blockchain mining companies, especially those that mine cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.
Blockchain mining is the process of adding transactions to the large, distributed public ledger of existing transactions known as the blockchain, according to techopedia.com.
More specifically, crypto mining is the process of creating cryptocurrencies by auditing and processing cryptocurrency transactions on the blockchain, according to Forbes.
The computations required to mine the blockchain are so complex that they can be performed only with extremely powerful computers, Forbes said.
And these computers use a lot of electricity.
"Bitcoin blockchain mining centers are energy-intensive, and we recognize our responsibility to build a more environmentally sustainable future," said Maxim Serezhin, Standard Power's CEO, in a press release.
Nashua, New Hampshire-based Standard Power chose to locate its high-power infrastructure for crypto miners in Ohio "because of its low electricity costs with availability of carbon-free sources of energy," Serezhin said.
Energy Harbor said its "groundbreaking climate-friendly agreement" is aimed at helping Standard Power use green power to "revitalize an abandoned Ohio paper mill into a state-of-the-art facility that brings new jobs to the region."
The agreement also will lend reliability and stability to the transmission grid by shutting down operations when the electric grid and other Ohio customers need the power the most, according to Energy Harbor.
Energy Harbor was spun off from Akron utility FirstEnergy in March 2018 when its predecessor, FirstEnergy Solutions, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Like its former parent, Energy Harbor has been implicated in an alleged $61 million bribery and racketeering conspiracy to pass a law bailing out northern Ohio's two nuclear plants — now owned by Energy Harbor — and keep a referendum of the law off the ballot during the fall of 2019.
