Sparking a Green Revolution in Montserrat

This Bitcoin Policy UK research paper looks at Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean with a population of around 4,400. In 2020, 97% of the island's electricity came from diesel generators, and domestic power costs $0.53 per kWh. Three geothermal test wells have been drilled with Foreign and Commonwealth Office funding, and the two that remain produce steady output, but the plant has not been built because of its capital costs. A specialist consultancy recommended a conservative estimate of 1.5MW from the wells, above the island's average demand of 1.2MW.

The paper proposes a Bitcoin mine of about 0.5MW, roughly the size of a shipping container, to use energy that would otherwise be wasted. Its model finds 5.6MWh a day of stranded geothermal and solar energy, a fairly steady 0.5MW over about 19 hours. Using low, medium and high revenue assumptions, it estimates annual mining revenue of between $101,616 and $1,199,069, with the medium case equal to a 0.6% boost to GDP. Against hardware costs of around $700,000, it gives a net present value of $1.11 million over a four-year rig life. The paper argues this second income stream would make the geothermal plant easier to finance through loans or private investment. It sets out three ownership models, an owner-operator, a grid access licence and a fixed price unit licence, and says the mine could strengthen the grid by cutting its use within milliseconds when demand rises.