Image: MARA · Original source.
Renewables and heat reuse
MARA’s quarterly filing records its acquisition of a wind farm with 114 MW of nameplate wind capacity and a 240 MW interconnection. The stated aim includes monetising underused sustainable resources.
- Project at a glance
- 114 MW wind nameplate at acquisition (2025)
- Source date and context
- Acquired 14 February 2025
- Published financial detail
- The sources reviewed do not include full project accounts.
- Our comparison
- A UK example per 1,000 miner kWh
About 5 minutes to read
Buying the wind farm as well as the mining equipment
MARA's filing records a wind farm acquisition with 114 MW of nameplate wind capacity and a 240 MW interconnection. Owning the generation asset gives the company another way to organise its electricity supply and use computing equipment. It also brings the costs of the turbines, land, maintenance and the acquisition itself into the investment.
“extend the life of the miners beyond their previous economic lives”
Wind output still varies after the acquisition
A claim of very low marginal electricity cost concerns the next unit of generation. It does not remove the cost of owning the wind farm. Output still changes with weather and turbine availability. The generation business and the mining business should each be assessed before combining their returns, particularly when older mining equipment is part of the plan.
What the numbers could look like in the UK
The calculation below uses assumed UK prices to show how the costs fit together. It is our example, not this project’s reported earnings. Replace the inputs with current machine estimates and the costs at your own site.
Illustrative UK calculation
Income and running costs
1,000 kWh used by miners, plus 50 kWh for pumps and fans. All amounts in pounds.
Operating contributionBefore equipment and installation costs
£15.901.59p per miner kWh
Here, using the electricity for mining gives up a 5p/kWh export payment. That cost includes the 50 kWh used by pumps and fans. It is the value of an alternative sale, so it is not also charged as a grid electricity bill. The example assumes the generation equipment already exists.
| Mining income | 8p per miner kWh; an assumed rate, not a live earnings estimate |
|---|---|
| Electricity | 5p/kWh × 1,050 kWh = £52.50 |
| Pool fee | 2% of gross mining income |
| Useful heat | 0% of miner electricity = 0 kWh; no heat income assumed |
| Other running costs | £10 per 1,000 miner kWh; an allowance to replace with your own costs |
| Costs still to add | Equipment, installation, finance, tax, depreciation, major replacements and any costs above the allowance |
The contribution is what remains from mining income and useful heat after the stated running costs. It is not net profit: the equipment and other excluded costs still have to be recovered. Pumps and fans use electricity but earn no mining income in this calculation.
| Gross income per miner kWh | Operating contribution |
|---|---|
| 5p | −£13.50 |
| 8p Chart example | £15.90 |
| 11p | £45.30 |
- Mining income needed to cover running costs
- 6.38pper miner kWh
- Highest electricity cost or export value supported
- 6.51pper total electricity kWh
These are two ways to read the same example. Adding equipment costs or a larger maintenance allowance raises the income needed and reduces the electricity price the project can afford.
Compare heating options and work out annual costs
If the electricity has no export value or other useful destination, removing the export cost improves this example by £52.50. Generator maintenance, equipment costs and any payment to the electricity owner still remain. Heat is given no value here because the source does not establish a usable heat supply.
For an annual estimate, use the miner electricity expected during hours when running makes sense. Scale the contribution by annual miner kWh divided by 1,000, then deduct fixed annual costs. Recalculate if electricity prices, mining income or usable heat change.
Simple payback is the total installed cost divided by positive annual cash contribution. There is no payback under a scenario with zero or negative contribution. The sources reviewed here do not provide the full project accounts needed to calculate an actual payback for this installation.
Separate the generation investment from mining
Owning generation adds generation economics and maintenance responsibilities to the mining model.
Track wind output, miner load, outages, maintenance, interconnection costs and any electricity settlement. Distinguish asset capacity from delivered annual energy.
Questions worth asking
- What return must the wind farm investment earn?
- How much mining output remains after periods of low wind and turbine maintenance?
Try your own electricity and heat figures
Compare available miners and dated earnings estimates. Include heat only where you can use it or have a customer for it.
Sources and photographs
Sources checked on 29 September 2026. Project facts and quotations come from the publications below; the UK calculations and practical assessment are The Mining Shop’s analysis. This article is based on published material, rather than a site visit.
- MARA quarterly filing
- MARA February 2025 acquisition completion
- Salman Khan, MARA CFO, December 2024 acquisition announcement
Photographs: MARA (source).
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