By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) announced the development of 200 megawatts of immersion-cooling technology at its Whinstone facility, which it acquired earlier this year.
Shares of Riot Blockchain rose more than 2% on Tuesday.
“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.
The company previously announced a 400 MW expansion of Whinstone, of which 200 MW of the infrastructure is committed to utilizing immersion-cooling technology in Bitcoin mining.
The development includes two buildings under construction and will host approximately 46,000 S19 Antminers from Riot’s current miner fleet.
Immersion-cooling is a method where Bitcoin mining chips are immersed in a specialized fluid to keep the integrated circuits working at lower temperatures. The technique allows them to run at higher productivity rates, with preliminary results estimating a 25% increase in hash rate, with an estimated potential increase in performance of as much as 50%.
"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. 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,” added Les, referring to integrated circuit chips.
The initial deployment of ASICs in the immersion-cooled buildings will begin by Q4.