Soluna is building a wind-powered blockchain computing infrastructure in Morocco

SEATTLE – Soluna Technologies, Ltd., the company powering the blockchain-economy with low-cost renewable energy, has retained New Alchemy, a leading advisory group in the blockchain and tokenization industry.

Soluna is launching its own utility-scale blockchain computing facility, integrated with its own renewable energy resources, to meet growing cryptocurrency mining and other blockchain network demands and requirements.

Seattle-based New Alchemy has extensive expertise in helping businesses create and launch blockchain projects, new tokens and crypto projects. New Alchemy’s tokenization services include smart contract development, project management, and token game theory.

Soluna plans to develop its own 900-megawatt, 37,000-acre wind-powered power plant site in the Kingdom of Morocco—in one of the world’s windiest regions. The site will be combined with the company’s private computing facilities to power the blockchain in a more eco-friendly and sustainable way.

“Our vision is to power the blockchain with clean, renewable energy that we own and control,” says John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna. “Soluna will address the growing demand for energy to power today’s growing blockchain networks, and will create the world’s first ‘service node,’ providing high-density computing for future blockchain networks.”

The rapid growth in cryptocurrency mining is placing demands on global energy resources. According to Digiconomist, as of June 2018, Bitcoin mining uses 71 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, equivalent to almost 10% of China’s annual energy usage, representing an unsustainable growth in demand on the world’s energy resources. This has led cryptocurrency miners to turn to inexpensive and environmentally damaging fossil fuels. In response, Soluna has set out to be the world’s first utility-scale blockchain infrastructure company powered by its own private renewable energy sources.

Soluna’s technology focuses on:

• Vertical integration: By developing renewable energy power plants dedicated to on-site, high-density computing, Soluna’s groundbreaking approach will bring vertical integration to the blockchain ecosystem. Its energy systems and computing facilities will be self-contained, distributed, scalable, and flexible.

• Wind-powered renewable energy: Soluna’s flagship site covers 37,000-acres in southern Morocco with over 900 Megawatts of wind power potential.  It is a Class I wind site, where wind speeds reach over 22 miles per hour, making it one of the highest quality wind sites in the world. In November 2016, the King of Morocco announced the kingdom’s mission to produce over 52% of its electricity through green power by 2030 and create over 6,000 Megawatts of renewable projects by 2020. By design, Soluna’s wind farm will be an off-grid operation, with the plan to integrate it with the grid.  Soluna expects the high-voltage transmission lines to reach the site by mid-2019. If it is not connected to the grid, Soluna’s site will be one of the largest off-grid mining operations. 

• Utility-scale computing operations: Soluna’s agile, flexible computing facilities will power the coming wave of blockchain technologies, networks, and distributed applications. Soluna will provide green, renewable, low-cost computing power for the evolving needs of the blockchain ecosystem and compliant with the local regulations, whether that be cryptocurrency mining, distributed graphics rendering, file storage, machine learning, AI-related computations, or other services. 

“A host of industries stand to be radically transformed using blockchain technology, and Soluna is positioning itself as an innovative leader in vertical integration within that ecosystem,” said Theron Andrews, New Alchemy’s Vice President of Client Marketing. “By providing on-site, high-density computing resources, Soluna is also addressing corresponding power demands with clean, utility-scale energy generation.”