Vespene Energy has received $4.3 million in funding from blockchain investment firm Polychain Capital and other climate-focused funds to continue converting methane gas from landfills into power for bitcoin mining. 

The Berkeley, Calif.-based company generates electricity from wasted methane gas found in municipal landfills using efficient micro-turbines to power bitcoin-mining data centers.  

A U.N. report declared, methane as a harmful greenhouse gas that is 28 times to 34 times greater than carbon dioxide, causing a 100-year global warming potential. Vespene mentioned, referring to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that U.S. landfills account for 15% of U.S. methane emissions, however a recent NASA survey demonstrated that these numbers may be two times to three times higher. 

“Due to the high costs and long lead times associated with building grid-connected landfill energy projects, over 70% of the country’s roughly 2,600 municipal landfills do not have a viable use for the methane they produce,” the company said in the statement. 

By enabling landfill owners to turn harmful methane gas into a potential income stream, Vespene gets a cheap, renewable energy source for its bitcoin mining data centers. 

“By using wasted methane to power bitcoin mining, Vespene is killing two birds with one stone – mitigating harmful GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and helping transition Bitcoin mining toward carbon-neutral and carbon-negative energy sources,” the company said in the statement. 

Bitcoin mining technology guaranteed for mitigating some greenhouse emission-related issues, regardless of objections by few lawmakers that miners are harming the environment by utilizing an excess of energy. 

In the process of setting up remote facilities to use otherwise-wasted natural gas to power mining operations, miners have been reducing the amount of methane gas released into the atmosphere. 

The organization plans to make California its pilot site, making it the first company to convert wasted landfill methane into bitcoin. The time of establishing one Vespene module will take about four to six months, which have a power capacity of about 1.5 megawatts (MW) and eliminate 270,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year. 

Vespene’s business model likewise permits landfill owners to participate in a profit-sharing agreement that has a foreordained floor and ceiling. On the other hand, by allowing the company set up its facility, landfill owners can gain a certain amount of upside by means of a profit-sharing arrangement during a bitcoin bull run. 

In the meantime, having drawn certain limits on the amount of profit it has to relinquish, Vespene can fence its disadvantage during bearish markets. 

“Our goal is to mitigate a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and help fuel the transition to a renewable energy future by using bitcoin mining to turn landfill methane streams into revenue streams for our customers,” Vespene Energy co-founder and CEO Adam Wright said in the statement.