Miner Marathon starts supplying excess heat from a farm to heat homes in Finland

What’s new? Marathon Digital (MARA), the largest US publicly traded miner, has started using heat generated in one of its data centers in Finland to power a district heating system. In a pilot project, heat from a 2 MW farm in the Satakunta region will be used to heat some of the homes in nearby communities with a total population of 11 000.

DCD’s material

What else is known? The company sees the sale of recycled heat as a potential new source of revenue and part of its energy transformation mission. That said, Marathon did not disclose whether the heat is paid for under this particular pilot scheme.

CEO Fred Thiel called the Finnish project “a critical step forward in our strategy to expand globally and innovate sustainably.”

“We are not just producing digital assets; we are heating homes and integrating sustainable practices into our business model. We believe that this kind of innovation can drive the advancement of the digital asset compute industry and further strengthen Marathon’s leading position in the field.”

Marathon operates farms with a total capacity of 760 MW, and while some are powered by renewable sources, the majority of the resource comes from the US power grid, which is 80% dependent on fossil fuels.

Last year, the company launched a small pilot project in Utah to mine bitcoins using landfill-generated methane gas, with the facility generating 280 kW of power. Adam Swick, Marathon’s chief growth officer, said the project demonstrated economic and environmental viability, and the company will continue to experiment with alternative energy sources and conversions as it seeks to increase its utility:

“This pilot project in Finland is our first attempt to convert the heat that we produce as a byproduct of our operations into a valuable resource for a local community.”

Cryptocurrency mining is an extremely energy-intensive process. According to the current bitcoin electricity consumption index from Cambridge University, 148 TW per year is used to create new BTC.

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Marathon is the largest company in the BTC mining sector by capitalization at $5,84 billion. MARA shares are trading at $20,66 on the Nasdaq, having added 1,87% overnight. Since the beginning of the year, the drop has amounted to 22,45%.

Earlier this month, Donald Trump met with representatives of US miners, including Marathon, and pledged to support the industry if re-elected to the presidency. As a result, the companies’ shares rose 8% on average overnight, and have outperformed bitcoin itself in total returns since June. At the same time, MARA showed the least noticeable growth.