Reports have indicated that planning approval has been granted for a 20-megawatt solar farm that will be used to power cryptocurrency mining and a data center in Collie, Western Australia.
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20MW Solar Farm to Power Cryptocurrency Mining in Western Australia
The application for the solar farm has been made a by Hadouken Pty Ltd, which is owned by Australian Ben Tan. Mr. Tan previously co-founded Nasdaq-listed international solar power company, Vivopower International PLC. The solar park will be used to power cryptocurrency mining activities and a data center. Approval for the farm was recommended by the Southern Development Assessment Panel.
The site of the expected solar farm is approximately 2 kilometers (approximately 1.25 miles) north of Collie – a rural town situated 213 kilometers (approximately 132 miles) south of the Perth, the state’s capital. Collie is home to Western Australia’s largest power generator, Muja – a coal-fired power station capable of generating 854 megawatts of electricity.
Hadouken’s application indicated that the company intends to install a battery storage system positioned in ten shipping containers in future, with the solar facility set to be constructed within three to six months on an eighteen-hectare site.
Solar and Cryptocurrency Mining Offers Lifeline to Declining Coal Mining Town
For sixty years, Collie’s two coal mines were responsible for producing 60 percent of Western Australia’s coal-fired electricity. Recent years has seen the future of town cast in doubt, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoting a local politician as stating that “The cost of production is higher than the return from the coal itself so that’s really the basis of the issue and after so long a parent company’s going to
