A rural village in Kenya has been using off-grid energy generated using hydropower to mine Bitcoin (BTC) and power 500 families nearby.

The model belongs to Gridless Compute, a green energy initiative based in Kenya. The company primarily focuses on providing cheap and uninterrupted energy to the rural areas of Kenya. Due to the lack of proper infrastructure, it can be up to four times more expensive to pay for electricity in a small village in Kenya than in a large city. In addition to being expensive, this energy is often interrupted. Gridless purchases mini-grid hydropower energy generators in rural areas that the local families use to draw power from and uses the grids’ excess capacity to mine BTC.