DICKENS COUNTY — Nestled a couple of miles north of the city of Dickens down a gravel county street is a 125,000 square-foot warehouse stuffed with high-tech supercomputing gear that appeared to pop up nearly in a single day.
In 2019, Dickens County Judge Kevin Brendle acquired a random electronic mail that ultimately led to this new datacenter breaking floor about eight months in the past. Now, the facility is churning out Bitcoin in the Gateway to the Rolling Plains.
The facility is Argo Blockchain’s new flagship cryptocurrency mining middle, dubbed “Helios,” which opened to a lot fanfare Thursday morning on the web site between Afton and McAdoo.
Take a tour of the brand new middle:A have a look at Dickens County’s new crypto mining middle
The festivities at Thursday’s grand opening included remarks from elected officers and firm executives, guided excursions, a catered meal and stay music. U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, and Lubbock Republicans state Rep. Dustin Burrows and state Sen. Charles Perry have been all readily available to congratulate the corporate and group on the achievement.
Argo is predicated in the United Kingdom and maintains places of work in Quebec, Canada and Houston, however CEO Peter Wall says “It’s sort of based mostly right here now. We have extra individuals employed in Dickens County than every other place. This is our flagship mining facility. This is a large, large place for us.”
Wall says the datacenter might be able to mining round 25 Bitcoin per day, or about 5 instances the corporate’s present output. Based on Saturday’s Bitcoin worth, that will imply the Dickens facility may generate about $900,000 in income per day for Argo, although Bitcoin values fluctuate wildly.
Photos:Argo Blockchain cryptocurrency opens flagship in Dickens County
Mining, Wall says, is mainly the method of receiving new Bitcoin in as a reward for verifying different Bitcoin transactions by means of advanced mathematical computations on a pc community.
“In our present monetary system, if I’m going to ship you some cash from one place to a different, you employ a financial institution, and the financial institution is the trusted third social gathering,” Wall stated. “In the Bitcoin community, you employ a community of decentralized computer systems which can be unfold out all over the world. We’re a part of that community.”
Why West Texas?
Argo selected Dickens County to construct its 200-megawatt facility due to the ample provide of low-cost wind vitality, Wall stated, which is necessary due to the corporate’s concentrate on sustainability as they plan to quadruple the output of the Dickens facility in the close to future.
“The most important factor that it is advisable be a Bitcoin miner is energy, and what there’s a number of in West Texas is energy, notably wind energy,” Wall stated, noting that energy in Dickens County prices lower than half of what it does on the firm’s facility in Quebec.
The county’s individuals additionally drew them in.
“People in Dickens County are actually gifted and hard-working,” Wall stated. “We’ve bought 26 individuals employed now in Dickens County and 45 in the area. We’re now the biggest employer in the county, aside from the college methods.”
County Judge Kevin Brendle — who jokingly referred to himself as “Bitcoin Brendle” — stated that Argo’s use of energy and folks is helpful not simply to the county, however to the group as effectively.
“What Argo brings to Dickens County is a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in infrastructure, which can equate to hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of tax income over the subsequent 5 years that may go into our faculty methods and our county budgets,” Brendle stated. “It will convey individuals in to work who will spend their cash right here, and sooner or later in time, we hope to broaden our housing so we will convey extra individuals right here, as a result of what they’re doing right here, this facility, is simply step one.”
“The affect to our group is best jobs with advantages, insurance coverage, retirement, trip. It might be a tax boon for our faculty districts and the county,” he added.
In addition, Brendle says that computing amenities like Argo’s may assist to stabilize the ERCOT grid by utilizing up current extra energy and shutting down when requested by the grid operator.
“The vitality they’re pulling known as ‘extra vitality’. They’re not drawing on vitality that every other companies or properties are using. The substation has a congestion of vitality. There’s extra coming in than there’s an offload, so the corporate is ready to promote that extra vitality actually low-cost to firms like Argo,” Brendle stated. “But, when the time comes that the ERCOT system wants it, they’ll ship it again onto the grid.”
Several of the elected officers who spoke throughout Thursday’s ceremonies referred to the Argo Helios facility as “the tip of the iceberg,” and Brendle concurs with that evaluation.
“I get calls from Bitcoin miners each week that wish to transfer in right here,” Brendle stated. “We’re not recruiting them. The recruitment was achieved when the renewable vitality got here. They’re coming. They’re coming.”
https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/enterprise/2022/05/07/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-mining-facility-debuts-west-texas/7401720001/
