Bitdeer to Build $90m Gas-Fired Power Plant in Alberta to Mine Bitcoin

The project includes all the permits and licenses required to construct an on-site natural gas power plant and approval for a 99MW grid interconnection

Bitdeer has acquired a 99MW natural gas power project in Alberta, Canada, from an undisclosed seller.

The project includes all the permits and licenses required to construct an on-site natural gas power plant and approval for a 99MW grid interconnection with the Alberta Electric System Operator. Bitdeer intends to develop and construct the power plant in partnership with an undisclosed engineering, procurement, and construction firm. Construction is expected to begin in Q2 2025, with the site energized in Q4 2026. The gas-fired power will cost an estimated $90 million to build.

As part of the project acquisition, Bitdeer said it would deploy a carbon capture system to reduce the operations' carbon intensity.

"This acquisition is the culmination of extensive collaboration with multiple government agencies and the Canadian Blockchain Consortium. It marks a significant step in our strategy to become the first fully vertically integrated Bitcoin miner, giving us unmatched control over costs, energy efficiency, and scalability,” said Haris Basit, chief strategy officer at Bitdeer.

Bitdeer is a Singaporean headquartered cryptocurrency firm that currently has 175,000 Bitcoin mining machines under management. It has six sites in operation with a combined capacity of 896MW. The sites are located in Texas, Tennessee, and Washington in the US, Molde and Tydal in Norway, and Gedu in Bhutan.

The crypto miner has seven more projects in its pipeline, with a combined capacity of 1645MW. In its latest operational update, published in December, the company claimed it is on track to energize more than 1.1GW of its 2.5GW power portfolio over the next twelve months.

Over the past year, Alberta has seen several crypto and artificial intelligence data center firms sign agreements to power their operations through on-site natural gas generation.

For example, last month, Gryphon Digital agreed to purchase an 850-acre industrial site with access to a natural gas supply where it will develop an on-site AI and high-performance computing data center directly powered by natural gas.