Mexican banker Salinas Pliego wants to mine Bitcoin with geothermal energy
As long as regulators don't squash his plans, it's within the realm of possibility.
Ricardo Salinas Pliego said last week that he wants to mine Bitcoin at the Domo de San Pedro, a 25MW geothermal plant in Nayarit state. The Mexican billionaire asked for help on Twitter since he doesn't know the first thing, he said, about industrial Bitcoin mining.
Salinas Pliego is perhaps Mexico’s biggest cheerleader for Bitcoin. But he is controversial at home. For instance, President of Mexico AMLO wants Salinas Pliego and other high profile Mexican billionaires to pay back taxes.
At least one Mexican energy lawyer thinks Salinas Pliego’s proposal is within the realm of possibility since the businessman owns Domo de San Pedro. Salinas Pliego claims he has 10MW to play with. The 25MW plant is a private concession owned by GEODESA (Dragon Group) - a subsidiary of Grupo Salinas. Juan Luis del Valle Luarca is the company 's CEO. Dragon is Salinas Pliego’s renewable energy unit and the electricity generated from his plants is auto-consumed by Salinas Pliego businesses.
Samson Mow of Blockstream responded on Twitter and it appears a meeting could crystallize. This thread with Mow suggests that the Bitcoin infrastructure company Blockstream might be tapped by Salinas Pliego for technical know-how:
We spoke with two Bitcoin miners in Mexico about Salinas Pliego’s intentions here. It’s understood that he has struggled to get Banxico to allow him to offer crypto trading through his Banco Azteca operations. They won’t let him. Banco Azteca - unlike Bitso - cannot exploit a loophole that will get it around the Central Bank’s blockade.
This could be the reason why Salinas Pliego wants to mine Bitcoin instead, as a way to gain exposure via other means. Sources do not describe any impropriety concerning the move to use Domo de San Pedro energy.
However, Mexico’s president AMLO is in the midst of passing an energy reform that could threaten the private plant. Parliamentary representatives from the European Union are lobbying against the energy legislation because it would carbonize the grid and threaten European renewable players in the Mexican market. ENEL is among a handful of renewable energy utilities in the market.
One threat worth considering is that the CFE, Mexico’s electricity regulator, could sanction Domo de San Pedro for Bitcoin Mining. It has sanctioned other miners in Mexico City and if this high-profile operation were to be weaponized by AMLO for political gain, then Bitcoin mining in Mexico would undoubtedly face a choppy start.