Iran Makes Amendments To Offer Crypto Miners Access To Renewable Energy

Some revisions have been made to the rules applicable to the crypto mining industry in Iran by the authorities in order to give them easier access to green power.

Licensed miners will now have the opportunity of buying electricity generated via renewable resources in the country at a lower price.

Change in regulations

The Ministry of Energy in Iran has made certain changes to crypto mining regulations for facilities crypto mining operations in the country in terms of getting access to renewable power in the Islamic Republic.

The decree was recently issued, which permits miners to not have to use the power generation capacities on-site and to instead purchase electricity generated via renewable resources via the national grid, or anywhere else in the country.

An official of Tavanir, the Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution company in Iran, Mohammad Khodadadi said that before this rule change, mining facilities could only sign contracts with renewable energy providers in the same province as them.

Moreover, a report also disclosed that Iranian firms that use clean energy for legal mining would not have to pay the regular transmission fee to pay for using the electricity network of the country.

Positive changes

There have been some positive changes in the crypto mining sector in Iran. Back in December, authorities in Iran had taken the decision of allowing power plans using green energy for electricity production to supply it to licensed miners.

Tehran’s energy ministry had taken the initiative to do so. During the dry and hot summers, there have been electricity shortages in Iran and also in the cold winter months.

The deficit has partially been blamed on the energy-intensive activity of bitcoin mining. Registered crypto mining facilities had been told to shut down last year on more than one occasion.

Tavanir did the same this year and ordered mining operations to close their power-hungry equipment until the end of the summer season.

It cited the shortage in electricity, amidst increasing demand because of the higher consumption for cooling purposes. The crypto community in Iran had reacted negatively to the news.

Measures against crypto miners

The state-owned utility had also announced that unregistered and unlicensed miners would have to face severe consequences.

It went as far as hiking fines on illegal mining activities by a whopping 400%. Official data released in May showed that almost 7,000 facilities that had been illegally minting digital coins were identified and shut down by the Iranian government.

Subsidized household electricity is usually used for powering such improved crypto mining facilities and many Iranians use them for generating income.

Tavanir employees have conducted a number of raids and have confiscated hundreds of thousands of mining equipment.

Iran had seen a massive influx of crypto miners last year after China launched a crackdown against the crypto mining sector last year.

This prompted many crypto farms and operators to shut down their operations in the country and move to other regions offering cheap and excess electricity.