MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), a global firm focused on bitcoin mining and leveraging digital asset compute to support the energy transformation, announced entering into a definitive agreement to acquire a wind farm that’s reportedly based in Hansford County, Texas, with 240 MW of interconnection capacity and 114 MW of nameplate wind capacity.
This strategic acquisition represents a step forward in bitcoin mining firm MARA’s objectives to “convert underutilized sustainable resources” into economic value, achieve “near-zero energy cost,” and enable broader renewable energy deployment.
MARA will develop and operate a behind-the-meter data center “powered entirely by the site’s 114 MW of wind capacity at zero-marginal energy cost.”
By operating a data center at this site, MARA expects to take wind demand off the grid – “alleviating grid congestion, enabling renewable energy development, and building local power demand.”
Fred Thiel, MARA’s Chairman and CEO said that this acquisition serves as a blueprint for how the “energy and data center sectors can collaborate to create long-term value while advancing sustainability initiatives.” Thiel added that by repurposing machines and “energizing them with 100% renewable, zero-marginal energy cost, we’re leveraging renewable resources that would have otherwise been curtailed, reducing our bitcoin production costs through vertical integration, and demonstrating MARA’s commitment to environmental stewardship.”
The site will utilize last-generation ASIC mining hardware that would have otherwise been “written off or sold into the secondary market.”
MARA’s approach, called the Advanced ASIC Retirement Initiative, creates a more sustainable and capital-efficient alternative to discarding retired machines, providing an avenue for the hardware to “continue operating profitably beyond their normal lifecycle, utilizing wind power that would otherwise have been curtailed.”
MARA’s Chief Financial Officer, Salman Khan:
“The program is expected to not only extend the life of the miners beyond their previous economic lives with zero-marginal energy cost, but also enhance MARA’s return on capital employed while reducing our operating costs and mitigating shareholder dilution.”
The wind farm joins renewably powered data centers owned and operated by MARA, and will be expected serve a role in furthering the company’s commitment to sustainability.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to “close by the first quarter of 2025.”