Data Centre Magazine April 2026, Issue 43 | Page 53

Eduardo cautioned that any development would take time.“ That’ s not coming next month,” he said.“ It will take a couple of years for us to implement.”
Crypto mining as flexible load While hyperscale data centres t ypically require firm power commitments and long-term supply agreements, bitcoin mining can operate as a controllable load. Facilities can scale output up or down in line with power availability, aligning well with intermittent renewables.
For ENGIE, the objective is not exposure to cryptocurrency markets but monetisation of curtailed megawatt hours. By collaborating with bitcoin mining data centres, the company could convert otherwise wasted generation into revenue.
However, the wider crypto industry is evolving. Several established mining firms are shifting away from pure bitcoin operations and repurposing infrastructure for AI workloads. AI data centres, particularly those running GPU clusters, offer more predictable contracted revenues compared with the volatility of crypto markets.
Some operators are converting existing crypto sites into standard AI data centres, while others are signing large-scale
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