Bitcoin News

Story: Marathon Digital’s 280 kW Landfill Gas Pilot Tests Bitcoin Mining’s Green…

By Pankaj K

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Why Landfill Methane Makes Sense Here. Landfill gas is basically a byproduct of organic waste breaking down.

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What the Pilot Still Needs to Prove. The Utah project is modest. 280 kW doesn't move the needle for a company with Marathon's scale.

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Miners as Energy Operators. There's a broader shift happening in how serious mining companies think about their role.

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Marathon Digital is running a Bitcoin mining pilot in Utah powered entirely by landfill methane gas.

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The numbers are small but the cost structure is striking. Power runs at roughly $0.03 per kilowatt-hour, which is well below what most grid-connected miners pay in competitive…

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Landfill gas is basically a byproduct of organic waste breaking down. Municipalities and waste operators have dealt with it for decades — sometimes capturing it for electricity,…

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Marathon and Nodal Power are betting that Bitcoin mining is a flexible enough load to match the irregular, location-specific nature of landfill gas supply.

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And the off-grid angle matters politically too. Bitcoin mining has taken heat for years over grid congestion and energy use.

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The key unknowns here aren't really philosophical — they're mechanical. Can the methane supply stay consistent enough to keep generators running?

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More context: Foundry USA Pushes Miners Toward BIP-110 as Bitcoin Fee Debate Heats Up

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92% uptime is good, but it's not clear yet how long the pilot has been running or what conditions it faced. No details on the exact duration were provided.

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Scalability is probably the biggest open question. There are landfills across the country, and in theory each one is a potential off-grid mining site.

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There's a broader shift happening in how serious mining companies think about their role. It's not just about buying cheap power anymore.

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That's a different business than just running racks of ASICs. It requires different expertise, different capital allocation, and different relationships.

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Related: Bitcoin ETFs See Six-Day Streak of Positive Inflows, Collecting $930 Million

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