Collie could soon be home to a 20 megawatt solar farm and cryptocurrency 'mining' operation, after the Southern Development Assessment Panel recommended approval for a project led by energy entrepreneur Ben Tan.
Collie could soon be home to a 20 megawatt solar farm and cryptocurrency 'mining' operation, after the Southern Development Assessment Panel recommended approval for a project led by energy entrepreneur Ben Tan.
Mr Tan’s latest business, Hadouken, is the proponent, with the project likely to include nearly 70,000 solar panels and potentially a battery storage component.
That would come at a capital cost of about $16 million.
The power generated through the plant would be used to 'mine' cryptocurrency, a digital medium of exchange which uses a distributed ledger, across many computers, to securely record transactions.
Bitcoin is the most well-known such currency, although many others exist, including ethereum and litecoin.
The process of 'mining' involves using computers to make calculations in order to run transactions across the network.
Mr Tan founded Tesla Holdings, a Perth-based business unrelated to Elon Musk’s Tesla Group, in 2008, and built four peaking power plants in Western Australia.
His next move was co-founding VivoPower which constructed more than 90MW of solar farms and was listed on the Nasdaq.
Business News understands Hadouken will be continuing financing negotiations with a view to kick off operations next year.
Mr Tan told Business News Collie was a fantastic spot for solar and high tech industry as the region moved away from its long term coal industry.
Collie had a strategic focus to encourage investment in renewables too, he said.
