TeraWulf, a bitcoin miner that uses more than 90% carbon-free energy, said it had energized roughly half of the miners at its 100% nuclear-powered Nautilus Cryptomine facility. At the moment, around 8,000 of the company’s miners are online, translating to a hash rate capacity of about 1.0 EH/s.

Nautilus Cryptomine, One of the Most Cost-Effective Bitcoin Mining Facilities

Zero-carbon bitcoin mining firm TeraWulf announced on Monday it has energized around half of its 50-megawatt (MW) stake in its Nautilus Cryptomine, facility in Pennsylvania. The Nautilus Cryptomine is a 50/50 joint venture between TeraWulf and Cumulus Coin, a subsidiary of Talen Energy Corporation.

TeraWulf said the energization of its remaining miners, around 8,000, will be completed over the following weeks. The company’s share in phase one of the plant is expected to go online by May. The bitcoin miner can also add 50 MW of additional mining capacity at the facility.

Nautilus Cryptomine is the US’s first behind-the-meter bitcoin mining plant, powered entirely by nuclear power. The facility sources carbon-free nuclear power from Pennsylvania’s 2.5 GW Susquehanna generation station.

“With the recent energization of the Nautilus facility earlier this month, approximately 16,000 of TeraWulf’s owned miners, representing 1.9 EH/s of self-mining capacity, are onsite and being brought online daily,” said Paul Prager, Chairman and CEO of TeraWulf. Prager said Nautilus Cryptomine leverages arguably the lowest-cost power in the sector of only $0.02/kWh for five years.

Meanwhile, TeraWulf is also expanding bitcoin mining operations at its Lake Mariner plant. The company is currently adding Building 2, which is expected to expand the facility’s operational capacity from 60 MW to 110 MW.

Crypto Mining CO2 Emissions

Founded in 2021, TeraWulf is a mining firm that produces bitcoin using zero-carbon energy sources like nuclear, hydro, and solar power.

Environmentalists have heavily criticized miners of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over their excessive use of energy and high carbon emissions. Last year, a research report by CoinShares revealed that bitcoin mining accounted for 0.08% of global CO2 emissions.

On a more positive note, energy consumption and carbon emissions released by miners of the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, have shrunk drastically since the network shifted to the proof-of-stake (PoS) model last year. According to Forex Suggest, Ethereum’s CO2 emissions declined to 8,824 tons from 21.95 million tons in just a year, while its energy consumption per transaction fell from 62.56 kWh to 0.03 kWh.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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