Image: Soluna · Original source.
Renewables and heat reuse
Soluna describes Dorothy 1 as a 50 MW campus in Texas, powered by wind, for Bitcoin mining and hosting. Its power agreements were designed around the wind farm’s curtailment and grid support needs.
- Project at a glance
- 50 MW Dorothy 1 campus
- Source date and context
- Project page reviewed September 2026
- 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
Wind generation meets a flexible computing load
Soluna identifies Dorothy 1A and 1B as a combined 50 MW campus in Texas for Bitcoin hosting and mining. The project sits alongside wind generation and was developed around the site's power arrangements. The useful question is how much electricity the computing load can use when the wind farm would otherwise receive a poor price or have to reduce output.
“A 50 MW wind-powered data center campus in Texas”
Capacity does not tell the whole energy story
A 50 MW campus cannot be assumed to receive 50 MW of surplus wind power every hour. Wind conditions, other demand and market instructions change the available supply. A comparison with UK wind generation needs interval records for output, export value and curtailment, together with the miner's actual operating schedule. Texas market payments should not be carried into a UK forecast.
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.
Use the wind farm settlement data
A controllable buyer can absorb power that is otherwise difficult to sell.
Use interval wind output, curtailment instructions, computing load and contract settlements. Separate generation performance from data centre availability.
Questions worth asking
- How much energy was genuinely constrained?
- Would alternative export or storage opportunities change the dispatch decision?
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.
Photographs: Soluna (source).
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