“`html
Maximilian Obwexer encountered an issue.
He was warming his residence in Austria using traditional heating oil, which proved costly. A natural inventor and a previous engineer skilled in hydropower facilities, he sought to discover a more efficient method to heat his home.
After numerous experimentation phases and immersing himself in the Bitcoin (mining) niche, he established a company dedicated to this pursuit three years ago. His enterprise, 21energy, crafts well-constructed, robust, and remarkably aesthetically pleasing (and surprisingly silent!) miners intended for domestic use. The initial models of Ofen 1 featured speeds of up to 10 TH/s, while the premium variant could achieve, at maximum capacity and quite loudly, 40 TH/s. Having increased production, bringing on 12 new staff members just this year and unveiling the new Ofen 2 (35-42 TH/s), the Bitcoin heater resembles a standard radiator — powered by Bitcoin. And yes, you can solo mine with this Bitcoin heater… or affiliate with any pool that you deem suitable.
“Bitcoin heaters facilitate decentralized grid balance — at home!” he declared on stage in Helsinki on Friday, before a crowd of intrigued faces at the inaugural Nordic Bitcoin conference BTCHel. Notably, he dedicated the majority of his presentation to not promoting his remarkable products or detailing his narrative in Bitcoin, but rather addressing the myriad challenges troubling the European grid.
Europeans depend on imports for their energy needs. Its existing electricity providers — traditional coal, gas, and hydro — are increasingly instructed to reduce their supply to the grid, in favor of the increasingly common wind turbines and solar installations. Fossil-fuel reliance generates CO2 emissions and particulates in the local environment, but its proposed substitutes impose dynamic and uncontrollable electricity generation onto the grid. During peak supply times, even renewable energy producers are urged by grid management to scale back or cease production; there is simply no one available to absorb the excess electricity, and no place to store it.
This situation is detrimental because it squanders potential electricity that could have been utilized, but even more concerning is that it complicates investment calculations for renewable energy backers worse. Not coincidentally, households in Europe incur exorbitant costs for their electricity… and additionally, heating is notably expensive.
When all these factors are considered together, it’s as if the old world is screaming out for Bitcoin mining. Obwexer concurs, “It’s an obvious choice — even if you don’t appreciate or grasp Bitcoin,” he tells me, standing beside his shiny green booth and radiators ensuring the Expo hall in Helsinki remains warm and cozy.
Indeed, a substantial segment of his clientele comprises “solar enthusiasts” — passionate climate change advocates eager to engage in tangible actions to reduce their fossil fuel consumption. While it’s not the initial demographic you might associate with an interest in Bitcoin, “The economics simply make sense,” Obwexer informs me.
In a recent podcast interview with Knut Svanholm and Luke de Wolf, two of the co-organizers of BTCHel, Obwexer commented that “Finland is genuinely at the cutting edge of bitcoin heating and bitcoin district heating”:
“Europe craves Bitcoin mining so desperately, amid the significant volatility in the electricity grids… we don’t need to worry too much about politicians, because… they have already documented it — they just don’t recognize that they recorded Bitcoin mining everywhere.”
On stage in Helsinki, he presented one of the most critical graphs in the entire discussion surrounding economics and energy, which highlights precisely how vital energy is for the welfare and prosperity of a society. “To cultivate a clean, affluent, and healthy society, a substantial amount of power is essential.”
Next on the agenda for Obwexer and his team at 21energy is contributing to flexible load shedding at the grid level. Deploying mobile miners in a truck to alleviate production pressure from, for example, hydro plants, represents a perfect application for Bitcoin mining: Instead of facing requests to reduce production due to an overburdened grid, they can redirect the electricity generated from their water flow to Bitcoin miners — which also reduces their response time from minutes to mere seconds.
Overall, utilizing purpose-built or repurposed Bitcoin miners for heating your residence is the most apparent method to decentralize mining — particularly because home miners are significantly less vulnerable to the cutthroat market of Bitcoin mining that, for instance, large mining operations experience.
While addressing multiple real-world energy challenges simultaneously, Obwexer and his team at 21energy are accomplishing precisely that — “From Tyrol to the World.”
“I am extremely optimistic about Bitcoin mining in Europe,” Obwexer concluded.
Source link
“`
