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Does anyone know of any bitcoin mines using old jet turbines?
511 sats \ 9 comments \ @k00b 13h bitcoin_Mining
I saw that Boom, maker of supersonic aircraft, is selling jet turbines to AI data center companies like Crusoe.1
Both xAI and OpenAI are "building their own power plants with large arrays of converted jet engines."1 And apparently you can power jet engines with natural gas.
I had no idea this was a thing and was surprised to see a literal jet turbine housed in a shipping container. I guess any turbine is still a turbine.
That got me wondering if this is already common practice among bitcoin miners. Anyone know?

Footnotes

  1. X thread from Boom's founder: https://x.com/bscholl/status/1998372107215122910 ↩ ↩2
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1000 sats \ 2 replies \ @justin_shocknet 11h
Miner arb was on stranded energy using regular generators
AI squeezed that arb, no energy left stranded, generators manufacturers backlogged... Jet thing is relatively recent because of the generator crunch
GEV has been doing this awhile, taking engines out of the desert bone yards, but the super sonic engines are more efficient allegedly in hot climates like Texas
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17 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b OP 5h
GEV
Very cool! They've even got a website where you can view their aeroderivatives: https://www.gevernova.com/gas-power/products/gas-turbines
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 4h
One thing I find funny is GE not too long ago broke into multiple companies, GEV is divorced from GE aerospace 😂
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 13h
Mhh, interesting! I still looks designed to generate thrust though.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @OriginalSize 1h
Thrust should be minimized by sapping off that mechanical energy to the generator, but of course it has to run fast enough to achieve compression for efficiency.
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43 sats \ 2 replies \ @winteryeti 12h
Ok, but why? I'm not understanding the mechanics of how a jet engine is applied. It is used as an on-site generator versus just using power from a solar farm or a connected grid?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @OriginalSize 1h
It's axle is connected to a gearbox or directly to a generator. The jet turbine is just a really efficient way to capture energy from combustion.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b OP 12h
It's effectively a very large generator. Using grid power for many new megawatts of load, unless the grid was overbuilt and has many megawatts of excess capacity, is not something you can really do on short timescales. At this scale, assuming you can afford to do so, it seems to make more sense to provide your own power generation to cut out the variables of middlemen.
I'm sure a lot of these data centers will be powered by solar too.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nitter 13h
https://twiiit.com/bscholl/status/1998372107215122910
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