Bitcoin miner and microgrid tech company, CleanSpark Inc (NASDAQ: CLSK), is still working to get its operaton up and running in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene, which came ashore over the weekend.
The company announced its various operational challenges on Monday, indicating that it expects to return to full operation by October 4.
Following Hurricane Helene, CleanSpark reported that 165 MW of its capacity remained offline as of late September 2024 due to extensive power outages and infrastructural damage in the regions where it operates.
Fortunately, the company announced that all its employees are safe, and while the infrastructure sustained some damage, it did not suffer catastrophic impacts. This allowed CleanSpark to quickly initiate restoration efforts.
During the storm, the company maintained an operational capacity of 10.5 exahashes per second (EH/s). Post-storm, CleanSpark restored over 17.5 EH/s and brought 200 MW of power back online. The company expects is aiming for a capacity of 28 EH/s by October 4.
CleanSpark’s CEO Zach Bradford expressed his condolences to those affected by the hurricane and reassured stakeholders of the company’s commitment to swift recovery.
“Within 24 hours, we were able to bring hashrate back to over 17.5 EH/s,” said Bradford.
“We have now brought approximately 200 MW back online and expect to bring the remaining 165 MW online in the coming week after the utilities and communities around us receive power.”
Bradford stated that they expect to restore most of the 165 MW still offline to communities by October 4, 2024, at the latest. The company’s teams are ready to swiftly resume normal operations as soon as power is restored.
Read more: PayPal lets merchants actually do business with cryptocurrency
Read more: Riot Platforms and Bitfarms settle dispute and agree to a truce
CleanSpark may reassess disaster preparedness
CleanSpark’s focus is on restoring normal operations as quickly as possible, depending on power availability.
While the company faces primarily business-centric challenges, Helene’s broader impact on communities includes widespread power outages, flooding, and significant loss of life and property, particularly in North Carolina and other southeastern states.
This event may prompt CleanSpark and similar companies to reassess their disaster preparedness, especially regarding infrastructure resilience against increasingly frequent extreme weather events due to climate change.
Hurricane Helene has tragically taken at least 137 lives and caused damage across seven US states—Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia—according to CBS News.
Winds reached up to 140 miles per hour, leading to road closures and severe flooding in some areas. The death toll is expected to rise as hundreds of people remain missing.
Since Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 27, Bitcoin’s hash rate has fluctuated between 538 EH/s and 745 EH/s, according to the crypto mining platform CoinWarz.
.
