Iran’s authorities have granted power plants that use renewable energy to be sold electricity to cryptocurrency miners. This decision was made after Iran’s government requested that mining companies cease operations to prevent winter blackouts.
Crypto Miners from Iran Mint Digital Coins using Renewable Energy
According to local media, Iranian companies that are licensed for mining cryptocurrency will have access to renewable energy. Tehran’s Ministry of Energy has approved new regulations that allow plants to generate electricity from renewable sources in order to provide coin minting companies with power within legal limits.
“Legal miners can enter into agreements with renewable power plants at negotiable terms and rates,” Mohammad Khodadadi, who heads the Tavanir department responsible for the mining industry, told the ISNA news agency. He stressed that the Energy Ministry will be in charge of determining the precise tariffs.
Tavanir, the Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company, is the country’s state-owned utility that recently ordered authorized miners to unplug their equipment. This is part of an effort to avoid blackouts, as the energy demand rises with falling temperatures.
The Ministry of Energy has been trying to reduce the use of liquid fuels for generation since last month, Tavanir’s spokesman Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi recently told the state-run broadcaster IRIB. IRIB has a number of options to prevent electricity shortages this winter, including the shutdown of licensed crypto farms.
Iran approved bitcoin mining in 2019. It also established licensing rules for companies operating in the sector. Register crypto farms buy electricity at export rates higher than the domestic rate and many Iranian miners bypass mandatory registration in order to get subsidized household costs.
After growing demand for electricity, Hassan Rouhani (then-President) announced that crypto mining would be temporarily banned. He said this because of the droughts and extreme heat. The shortages were also blamed on authorized mining companies.
The country’s crypto community criticized the restrictions after estimates indicated that legal miners consume only around 300 megawatts daily, while underground crypto farms burn 10 times more. In September, the ban was lifted as electricity demand decreased due to cooler temperatures.
Throughout the year, Tavanir has taken steps to crack down on illegal mining activities. Iranian media claimed in November, that more than 220,000 mining machines were confiscated by the utility and nearly 6,000 cryptocurrency farms had been shut down in various regions in the Islamic Republic.
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