Ukraine nuclear plants excess power tapped for digital currency processing

Recently, the Ministry of Energy and Environment of Ukraine suggested that nuclear power plants within the country use their excess power to process digital currency. At the moment, power plants in Ukraine are producing an excess amount of energy due to coronavirus shutting down many locations that would otherwise be using the energy. That being said, the Ministry of Energy and Environment sees digital currency transaction processing as an activity that can act as a driver of social and economic development.

“One of the modern tools of the use of excess electricity is to direct it to cryptocurrencies,” according to the Ministry of Energy and Environment. “This not only allows you to keep the guaranteed load of the nuclear power plant, but it will also give the opportunity for enterprises to attract additional funds. I.e. opens the way to fundamentally new economies, new approaches, and new market systems.”

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The nuclear power plants in Ukraine produce a guaranteed amount of power each month. However, because a number of the locations, such as brick and mortar businesses, have closed indefinitely and have had to turn the lights off due to coronavirus, the electricity that the power plants usually direct to these locations is not being used. This led the government to suggest that nuclear power plants point this excess energy at digital currency networks, because it is likely to bring them new revenues, and could potentially open the door to a new economy and market within Ukraine.

Why more countries want to process digital currencies

The announcement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy and Environment comes on the heels of an announcement by the Iranian government in support of digital currency transaction processing. Recently the Iranian government issued a license to Turkish firm iMiner that will make it the largest digital currency processing operation in the country.

Governments are encouraging companies with the infrastructure to process digital currencies to point their resources at digital currency networks because they believe it will be profitable. Or at the very least, would generate revenue for certain parties involved like power producers. A company always keeps their bottom line in mind; that being said, if both the Ukrainian and Iranian governments did not see digital currency transaction processing as an activity that is likely to pay off in the future, then they would not be interested in the activity or suggesting that businesses within their country to process digital currencies.