Cipher Mining, A Bitcoin Miner Installs 40-MW Wind Powered Site In Texas

Cipher Mining, a bitcoin miner installed mining rigs at its 40-megawatt plant in Alborz, Texas. By the beginning of 2023, the miner expects to be operating at 6.9 exahashes per second.

Cipher Mining Completes Texas Site

At its 40 megawatt wind-powered facility near Alborz, Texas, bitcoin miner Cipher Mining has finished setting up mining rigs, achieving a hash rate of roughly 1.3 exahashes per second (EH/s).

The new site will be able to generate up to 5.7 bitcoin every day, according to the company’s second-quarter earnings report.

Tyler Page, CEO of Cipher, stated, “Against challenging cryptocurrency market conditions, our attractive bitcoin mining unit economics uniquely position us to move ahead successfully.”

The very first location Cipher established was in Alborz. The Texas-based Bear and Chief data centers, which each have an initial capacity of 10 megawatts and are expected to increase the company’s hash rate by 0.6 EH/s, are now receiving mining rigs from the US-based miner’s second and third data centers. Throughout the second half of 2022, Cipher will deploy miners at its 205-megawatt location in Odessa, Texas. Cipher is already preparing to ship the miners there.

By 2023, a facility in Andrews, Texas, that will be paired with a new solar farm, could add 200 megawatts, according to Cipher. With its joint venture partner WindHQ, it is also looking into a number of suitable sites.

Cipher experienced a net loss of $29.2 million, or $0.12 per share, during the second quarter. Apart from its $11 million share of an equipment credit arrangement at its joint venture with Alborz, the company said it had no corporate debt. Early in May, the miner obtained a $46.9 million loan from BlockFi to fund the Alborz center through Alborz LLC, a partnership between Cipher Mining and WindHQ.

From 7.5 EH/s in the previous quarter to 6.9 EH/s, the miner reduced its hash rate prediction for the first quarter of 2023.

Power Deals to Fight Crypto Winter

Cipher has acquired power through five-year purchase agreements at an average fixed price of $0.0273 per kilowatt-hour, according to Page on Monday’s earnings call.

“These contracts are an incredible asset to have,” he also said. “In the current power and bitcoin price environment, the cost of power for someone without a fixed cost contract can exceed the revenue generated by mining bitcoin.”

When the potential revenue from selling power exceeds the potential revenue from mining bitcoin, Cipher intends to sell power to the grid rather than mine it.

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