A company that mines Bitcoin uses the heat generated by its computers to heat a greenhouse of tulips.
Grow tulips with Bitcoin mining
Tulips and Bitcoin are both associated with financial bubbles. In a gigantic greenhouse near Amsterdam, the Dutch try to get the two to work together.
Engineer Bert de Groot has placed six Bitcoin miners in a Tulip greenhouse to mine tokens and at the same time heat the greenhouse in which rows of tulips grow. The heat from the BTC miners makes farmers less dependent on gas, the price of which has risen enormously since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The mining equipment is itself powered by solar energy, reducing the normally huge electricity costs for mining and reducing the impact on the environment. Meanwhile, both the farmers and the company of engineer Bert de Groot earn crypto coins.
We think that with this way of heating our greenhouse, but also earning some Bitcoin, we have a win-win situation.
– Flower grower Danielle Koning
The effect of agriculture on the climate
The Netherlands is the largest tulip producer in the world and also the second largest exporter of agricultural products after the US. The Netherlands is aware of the effect of agriculture on the climate and, in addition, farmers are currently struggling with sky-high energy prices. Mining BTC can help farmers to stay on top of this energy crisis, says de Groot.
De Groot, who started his business earlier this year and currently has 17 clients, said Bitcoin and tulips are a perfect fit.
This operation is actually carbon negative, as are all operations I build. We improve the environment.
– The Great.
The collaboration started when Koning saw a video on Twitter that De Groot had made about Bitcoin mining. A while later there are six mining rigs in their greenhouse, the exact location of which Koning asked to keep secret to prevent criminals from targeting the machines worth 15,000 euros each.
Koning’s company owns half of the machines and keeps the Bitcoins they produce. De Groot is allowed to keep his three servers there in exchange for the maintenance he performs.
With a difference of 20°C between the air entering and leaving the machine, this provides the necessary heat needed to grow the tulips and dry the bulbs they produce.
The most important thing we get out of it is that we save on natural gas. Second, well, we earn Bitcoin by spinning them in the cash.
– King