More than 600 million Africans don’t have access to reliable electricity. 🔌 Blackouts are very frequent, even in more developed central cities, and don’t allow the creation of a developed society. Hospitals, schools, and other industries cannot run their businesses with such frequent electricity interruptions.
The problem with Africa, however, is not that they don’t have electricity generation capacity. They have it, and it is abundant. 💧 Hydro, dams and geothermal sources are quite spread across the continent, but they create energy not available where and when it’s needed, resulting in huge amounts of waste #energy that cannot be used nor monetized. 💸 The lack of infrastructure does not allow the creation of an energy market and not mining bitcoin would effectively be a waste of energy.
The Green Africa Mining Alliance 🤝 has been created by different pioneers such as Gridless and @Trojanmining with the goal to bring mining companies in Africa and support the electrification and advancement of rural communities via the #monetization of the #stranded energy available.
Bondo, a small cluster of villages in Malawi, underwent the installation of a mini grid composed of three turbines propelled by a small hydro scheme to exploit the significant region’s rainfall. The integration of bitcoin #miners brought direct monetization of any unused energy, and its revenues allowed the creation of infrastructure to power 1,800 homes ⚡now connected to the mini grid.
Virunga National Park, in Congo, abundant in hydro power but lacking basic monetary resources to cover its operating budget, has been saved thanks to a mini grid mining bitcoin. 🏞 The park was at risk of deforestation and loss of biodiversity due to sale of the land to oil companies, but proceeds from the sale of Bitcoin stopped sale activities and are helping to pay for park salaries and for infrastructure projects like roads and water pumping stations.
Other similar initiatives are ongoing in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and will allow the creation of off grid #electricity sources, able to power little communities and effectively turn free, otherwise wasted electricity into global incorruptible capital.
Energy sites in Africa are normally built via #donation programs 💰, which take long time, leave total dependence of the community on the donor and do not make economic sense for communities nor grid operators. If governments need money to fund a project, they could ask for #IMF support, sell bonds in their local #currency, reduce fiscal expenditures or raise taxes – all of which are unpopular methods. Investing in Bitcoin miners could be the last request for funding to unlock energy abundance and access to free capital.
In addition, African countries would normally have to sell goods to USA or Europe to earn $ or € and spend them on the international markets💲. #Bitcoin removes such friction and allows them to have direct access to international money.
nostr:npub1trr5r2nrpsk6xkjk5a7p6pfcryyt6yzsflwjmz6r7uj7lfkjxxtq78hdpu