The team at RE Royalties wishes you a very happy new year! With the team back at it in 2021, this looks to be an exciting year for renewable energy. January has been busy with news from the renewables space so let’s have a look at the articles that the team has been reading.
Quebec Bitcoin Farms Create Concern over Massive Electricity Requirements
With the recent surge in prices of Bitcoin, cryptomining has become a lucrative opportunity to ‘mine’ these Bitcoins. This is drawing attention in Quebec with cryptominers coming under scrutiny because of the massive amounts of electricity required to power the computers to mine the coins. Astonishingly, in 2019 Quebec received request for about 9 gigawatts of energy from cryptocurrency miners which represents 24% of the total generating capacity of Hydro-Quebec. To read more about this surge in cryptomining, check out the article here.
Stem to go Public in Blank-Check Merger
The US artificial intelligence energy storage company Stem Inc announced last month that it has agree to go public through merging with a blank-check acquisition company achieving a valuation of roughly $1.35 billion. Through this merger, Stem will secure approximately $608 million in proceeds to invest in its smart grid technology. Stem utilizes an artificial intelligence platform to automatically switch energy usage between battery and grid power. To read more about Stem and their recent capital raising efforts, please click here.
Ekona Power Raises $3m
A local Vancouver-based firm focusing on clean hydrogen production has recently raised $3m CAD in funding from BDC Capital that will help to develop its technology for low cost hydrogen production. The company was the winner of the Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada which was a program started by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and BDC Capital to enhance the pace and scale of the adoption of clean energy technology. The team at RE Royalties is looking forward to seeing what innovations Ekona is able to create! To read the full article, please click here.
We will see you next month with another selection of articles!