BlocksInform
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said officials will be able to use geothermal energy from one of the country's inactive volcanoes to fuel its Bitcoin City project.
in a sunday notice, bukele said there was a 90% probability of using the conchagua volcano to supply 42 megawatts — “enough to provide energy to the entire bitcoin city,” according to the president. The salvadoran leader said that the state-owned electricity company lageo was continuing to increase its production of geothermal energy from different volcanoes in the country, with a site considered capable of generating 95 mw.
Conchagua, situated near the eastern border of El Salvador and overlooking the Gulf of Fonseca, had no confirmed historic eruptions. According to bukele, if the energy consumption of the country's planned Bitcoin city exceeds the capacity of the volcano, it may be from other sites. he said any energy surplus would also be used for mining bitcoin (btc) to add to el salvador’s coffers. bukele has previously announced several crypto buys totaling 1,391 btc — more than $57.7 million at the time of publication following the brief price drop under $40,000.
related: el salvador: how it started vs. how it went with the bitcoin law in 2021
bukele first proposed having lageo make some of its facilities available to btc miners in june shortly after announcing his intention to make the crypto asset legal tender. in november, the el salvador president said the country planned to launch a bitcoin city funded by $1 billion in btc bonds. The two crypto and blockstream trading bitfinex have stated that they plan to support the initiative.
The president aims to make the bitcoin city become a fully functional city with jobs in tourism, construction, commerce and engineering. Residents will pay no tax on capital gains, income, ownership or payroll taxes.
