North Dakota’s bitterly cold winters make for the ideal setting desired by a new industry eyeing the state: cryptocurrency.
Interest has picked up over the past year in locating data centers within North Dakota. Such facilities consist of computer servers that can be used for a variety of purposes, including to mine digital money in the case of some of the companies considering the state.
Data centers generate a lot of heat. They tend to require a significant amount of power and cooling equipment to function well.
“Every time I talk to a utility and mention data centers, they say, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve got all kinds of people talking to us wanting to come,’” said John Weeda, director of the North Dakota Transmission Authority.
Data centers are needed for cloud storage. Banks use them for financial transactions. The facilities are increasingly in demand to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions, which are recorded in ledgers known as blockchains. Computers lend processing power to validate those transactions, and they are rewarded with more cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.
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That so-called “mining” process is energy-intensive, as electricity powers the servers and the fans used to cool down the hardware.
“One reason data centers like the northern climate is that their energy cost for cooling equipment is a lot less in North Dakota than in Arizona,” Weeda said. “The atmospheric temperature does a lot for you, especially right now (in winter).”
The interest in locating data centers within North Dakota poses challenges for utilities and the communities where the facilities might set up shop.
The topic came up at last week’s Bismarck City Commission…
