Blockchain company Soluna's wind farm in Dakhla will «not make cryptocurrency transactions in Morocco where financial authorities have warned against the use of cryptocurrencies», the firm's chief executive John Belizaire told Reuters Friday in an interview. The project was announced in July by Brookstone Partners, a New York-headquartered firm that backs through its Morocco subsidiary, Platinum Power, Soluna to build a 900-megawatt wind farm coupled with a datacenter for blockchain servers. The company will start the project's off-grid phase in 2019 which will be completed one year later. Soluna will deliver the project in five years at a cost ranging between 1.4 and 2.5 billion dollars, as it promised the Moroccan government. The firm is planning to invest 100 million dollars in the first phase of the project which is expected to generate 36 megawatts, said the same source. As for bitcoin mining, Soluna will be «using your computer to help process the uncrackable 'blockchains' or digital transaction records that underpin the currency», explains Reuters. The project will enable the company to rely on renewable energy for its utility-scale blockchain computing facility. For the record, the future Dakhla wind power plant is part of the development plan for non-fossil energies launched by Morocco in the Saharan provinces, with the Noor solar projects in Laayoune (80 MW) and Boujdour (20 MW), as well as the building of wind farms in Boujdour and Tarfaya.
