Marathon CEO Fred Thiel Discusses MARA's First International Bitcoin Mining Expansion in the UAE
Marathon Digital Holding's CEO, Fred Thiel, discusses the milestone achievement of MARA's inaugural international Bitcoin mining expansion in the UAE in a joint venture partnership with Zero Two. The expansion leverages a unique energy consumption dynamic in the United Arab Emirates, where scorching summer temperatures exceeding 100 degrees fahrenheit alongside high humidity lead to a substantial demand for energy to power air conditioning. Conversely, the winter season experiences cooler temperatures and reduced energy requirements. This energy usage asymmetry results in surplus energy generation during the winter months, which is harnessed by incorporating Bitcoin miners into the grid. This strategic integration not only balances the energy grid but also ensures the profitability of energy generation, which is employed in the desalinization process. The partnership yields advantages such as income generation from excess energy, grid stability, and the provision of cost-effective energy services to the public. This collaboration sets the stage for potential global replication of similar symbiotic ventures.
Transcripts are autogenerated. May contain typos.
one of the things we're very excited about is our joint venture partnership with zero two in the United Arab Emirates this project came together because of a unique situation regarding energy use in UAE in the Gulf States in the summertime the temperatures well above 100 degrees with high humidity and in the winter time it's much cooler so they have to have energy generating capacity sufficient to meet the demand for energy needed to run all the air conditioning in the summer and in the wintertime they need to use a lot less
energy at the same time most of the fresh water is made from desalinized seawater and that requires heat which is predominantly the heat that's used from the energy generation and so they have a need to run this energy generation even though there may not be off take for the energy during the winter time and so they have this asymmetry in their energy need where in the summertime they need to be able to have four gigawatts of power but in the winter time they only need about one gigawatt of power and so
adding Bitcoin miners to soak up that Delta when it's available is a great way to achieve a number of things one it balances the grid two it enables them to continue to run the energy generation profitably so that they can use the heat off take to make desalinize seawater and lastly it allows the government to continue to provide low-cost energy to the populace because they're now generating income from this excess energy and so we believe that it's this very symbiotic relationship and we're
very proud to be able to partner with zero two in UAE uh as really one of the largest data centers in the Middle East dedicated to digital assets and we're super excited about this and hopefully this is the first of many such opportunities we'll do globally
.jpg)
