CleanSpark recently announced that it plans to use immersion cooling on nearly 6,000 cryptocurrency mining rigs in a bid to reduce its operating costs and boost performance. That means submerging the systems in liquid to more efficiently manage its operating temperatures. Immersion cooling is becoming increasingly popular among mining companies as they look to squeeze out every bit of performance and reduce costs to maximize profits.
The company said that switching to immersion cooling has "proven to significantly increase the hashrate of bitcoin mining machines, reduce power consumption, and extend the life of the machines—thereby maximizing financial gains."
That's why it plans to immerse 5,940 of the Antminer S19j Pro mining rigs at its Bitcoin mining facility in Norcross, Georgia. CleanSpark said it will start with 8 MW worth of the rigs in February; eventually, that figure is expected to rise to 20 MW.
"Upon completion, the 20 MW project will consist of 180 liquid-filled tanks, with each tank holding 33 units of the Antminer S19j Pro machines—the newest generation series of bitcoin miners on the market—fully immersed in a proprietary cooling liquid," the company said. "The liquid is a synthetic hydrocarbon compound that has no electrical conductivity, is fully biodegradable and safe."
Besides lowering its operating costs, CleanSpark said that switching to immersion cooling should also reduce the impact its mining has on the environment, which has become increasingly concerning to the cryptocurrency industry's critics.
Presumably switching from air-based cooling technologies to liquid immersion cooling will also provide other benefits. It would be a surprise if these mining rigs were to, say, burst into flames while fully immersed in this "synthetic hydrocarbon."
