In a transfer that blends vitality innovation with digital infrastructure, Canaan Inc. introduced the launch of a pilot venture in Calgary, Alberta, designed to show stranded or flared pure fuel into energy for Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing.

The initiative, developed in partnership with Aurora AZ Power, marks a step for Canaan because it explores how waste fuel — usually burned off at distant wells — can as an alternative gas computing energy immediately on the supply.

The pilot will set up over $2 million value of Avalon A15 Professional miners and modular information facilities at wellheads, delivering roughly 2.5 megawatts of computing capability with a assured 90% uptime.

Canaan’s inventory began within the inexperienced and is presently up 22% on the information to $1.33 per share.

At its core, this “gas-to-compute” system is an experiment in effectivity: utilizing off-grid vitality that may in any other case pollute to energy one of many world’s most energy-hungry industries. Canaan estimates the venture will forestall as much as 14,000 metric tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions yearly by capturing and changing flared fuel into electrical energy.

“This initiative represents a serious step in demonstrating how computing infrastructure can evolve alongside vitality innovation,” mentioned Canaan CEO Nangeng Zhang. “By integrating localized pure fuel technology with our modular methods, we’re remodeling beforehand wasted sources into productive vitality.”

From flared fuel to Bitcoin mining and AI innovation

Flared fuel — pure fuel launched and burned as a byproduct of oil extraction — stays a big environmental problem, particularly in energy-rich areas like Alberta.

Based on the Alberta Power Regulator, greater than 900 million cubic meters of fuel have been flared in 2024 alone. The Canaan-Aurora mannequin goals to show that downside into a chance, creating what Aurora CEO Jing Shan Zhou calls a “scalable framework” for changing flared or stranded fuel into computing energy, based on the corporate’s press launch.

Past Bitcoin mining, Canaan envisions a broader utility for this mannequin in powering AI and high-performance computing workloads — sectors dealing with mounting strain to search out cheaper, cleaner vitality sources. 

As hyperscale information facilities drive world energy demand increased, localized vitality technology like this might provide an alternate path to scale sustainably.

Throughout downtime or grid curtailments, Canaan may even profit from promoting extra energy again to the grid by way of demand-response applications, the corporate mentioned.