Is heat from mining farms reusable?

Cryptos that have Proof of Work (PoW) as their method of validation (writing blocks to the blockchain) are touted as extremely polluting.
As I wrote in this article, however, a good portion of mining farms have located in extremely cold areas, and in close proximity to facilities that provide energy.
The reason is simple: the closer they are to production, the lower the cost of energy.
But not only is the transportation motive dominant in the choice, the possibility of obtaining energy from renewable sources also comes into play which further lowers the unit cost of energy.
To give you a simple example, the Mechanicville hydroelectric power plant was reactivated in 2003 and to date supplies power to a mining farm.

Mining farms are trying to do what they can to reduce their environmental impact.
In addition to taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by renewable energy, the technology is trying to produce integrated circuits (ASICs) that produce more computing power for the same amount of power.
But let's talk about the waste energy of these very powerful processors: heat.
As we know a lot of power used, implies a lot of heat to be dissipated; in fact, all mining farms are equipped with a very sophisticated cooling system, as the operating temperature of the ASICs must be kept constant.
Overheating of the processors would send the processor into protection by shutting down the machine: this shutdown, implies a lack of profitability, as well as shortening the life of the processor itself.
Since machines develop so much heat, is it possible to reuse it?
The answer is yes!
There are 2 projects in the experimental stage that are already showing excellent results:

• A greenhouse that maintains a constant temperature of 25°C all year round in Sweden;
• Production of dehydrated fruit.

The Greenhouse In The Frost

Imagine being able to eat delicious strawberries grown in an area of the earth where the maximum temperature is 16°C in August...
Impossible you will say, but instead, thanks to a Swedish pilot project, this is possible thanks to the heat generated by a mining farm.
The project was initiated with the collaboration of two large Swedish companies: the Boden Business Agency and Genesis Mining.
Thanks to an air-cooled datacenter (600kW) they keep the temperature of a 300 m2 greenhouse constant at 25°C.
In this way, all kinds of vegetables can be grown.
Now you can enjoy the strawberries, I cannot guarantee, however, the northern lights: that depends on the solar wind!

Inside the greenhouse

This is the outside of the greenhouse.

The dehydrated fruit

This innovation is the work of an eclectic miner from the very early days of Bitcoin.
The character had built himself, in 2011, a mining farm at home and with the heat his processors developed he dried strawberries.
Just think, he was selling them for the price of 1.5 BTC (which referred to 2011, would be about $3.5)
If you want to learn more about this folklore news, here some additional information.

This is the strawberry package that was being offered for sale.

Technology is making great strides; in fact, more possibilities for harnessing heat are being explored.
We will talk about that next time, however!