Today, Riot Blockchain announced their new 200 megawatt (MW) industrial-scale immersion-cooled bitcoin mining operation at its Whinstone facility which was acquired by the company earlier this year. This operation features two buildings that will host roughly 46,000 S19 series Antminer ASICs — all immersion-cooled.
“After months of research and development, utilizing partnerships across industries, Riot is proud to be a pioneer in the use of cutting-edge immersion-cooling technology at an unprecedented scale,” said Jason Les, CEO of Riot.
Immersion-Cooling is the process of submerging miner ASICs in a specialized fluid that circulates, allowing the miners integrated circuits to operate at lower temperatures. This technique can also increase the hash rate of the miners, as they no longer need fans for cooling, resulting in the machines using less energy.
The company is expecting a 25% increase in hash rate from the miners being submerged, according to industry data and the company’s own preliminary immersion-cooling test results, but they could see a potential increase of ASIC performance by as much as 50%.
Due to these efficiencies, we anticipate observing an increase in the company’s hash rate and productivity through 2022, without having to rely solely on purchasing additional ASICs,” Les added. “By leveraging technology, industry-leading low power costs and economies of scale, Riot intends to continue driving operating and capital efficiencies for its self-mining business and its institutional clients.”
The initial deployment of these immersion-cooled ASICs is expected to begin in Q4, 2021.
