A greenhouse in the Netherlands that grows flowers on heat from Bitcoin miners closed the second episode of the Mining Disrupt News Surge studio show, published on July 7, 2023. Bitcoin traded at $30,141 that day; on October 26, 2026 it trades at $80,068. The episode is short, a little under eight minutes, and it runs as a tour: network numbers first, then a state tax hearing in Nebraska, a factory in Germany and the greenhouse in the Netherlands.
The host opens on timechaincalendar.com and reads the network as it stood that day: an average block time of 9 minutes and 42 seconds, a difficulty adjustment pointing up about three percent, and a 14-day hashrate of 358.9 exahashes. Fast on-chain transactions cost about 23 sats per vbyte, slower ones 19, and he says he had seen fees as low as eight in the days before. Fewer than 200,000 transactions were waiting in the mempool, down from more than 300,000 for a long stretch. A node map showed 16,604 reachable nodes, which he notes leaves out every node that cannot be reached from outside. The backlog was about 115 blocks deep.
One Nebraska facility and its tax bill
The main news item is a clip from a legislative hearing, which the host describes as C-SPAN coverage of Nebraska's former head of economic development. Asked by a senator about the industry, she answers that the gains so far came mostly from taxes and jobs, and that the jobs pay well, particularly in rural parts of the state.
The headline the host reads over the clip goes further than the testimony itself: it says mining lowers property taxes and helps build more renewable energy. In the part of the hearing he plays, she speaks about sales tax, local tax revenue and jobs; property taxes and new renewable capacity are the headline writer's words, not hers. The host plays the clip at 1.25 speed to keep the episode moving.
we've actually seen significant benefits from this industry to date mostly from tax revenues and then job creation
Nebraska former head of Economic Development · 2:20
Her figures are for a single mining facility. Over 12 months it paid $1.6 million in state sales tax, and over the same period $3.8 million went to local taxing authorities.
1.6 million dollars in state sales tax over a 12-month period
Nebraska former head of Economic Development · 2:30
She says that local money paid for infrastructure in the host community, including enhancements to its regional municipal airport meant to bring in commercial air service. She ties the airport both to quality of life for residents and to recruiting further economic development projects. The hearing clip names neither the facility nor the town.
The host adds the two figures together for viewers and draws his own conclusion: wherever energy can be produced, from sun, wind or a river, the same kind of local growth is available.
this is the type of economic growth that any part of the planet can see when there is energy to be found there
Mining Disrupt News Surge host · 3:23
the only thing limiting a Bitcoin miner is energy production and your creativity to get it
Mining Disrupt News Surge host · 3:32
A spray-can factory in Germany
From Nebraska the episode moves, by Google Earth, to Germany. The host recalls that episode one covered mining in south-western Queensland, Australia, and then plays a news report about a company that makes spray bottles, aerosol cans and pump canisters. The whole site runs on solar panels, so it keeps producing power whenever the sun is out, whether or not anyone is working. The host says he is not sure whether the man in the report is the company's president or an employee, but someone there decided to put that excess solar power into Bitcoin miners.
The point made in the segment is about surplus. Power coming onto a grid has to go somewhere, and a solar array with no demand behind it creates problems. Miners give that power a use.
Heat for a Dutch greenhouse
The last stop is the Netherlands. Like the German factory, the greenhouse runs on solar power, but it grows flowers, and it uses the miners' exhaust heat to warm them. The grower in the report says the setup is expected to save a lot of gas otherwise used for heating.
Bitcoin mining is with solar energy and we save on the gas use
Dutch greenhouse operator · 6:38
He puts a number on the heat. Air leaving a miner is about 20 degrees Celsius warmer than the air going in, because the machines' processors are guessing numbers without pause.
you have a Delta of approximately 20 degrees Celsius between the temperature that goes into the minor and that comes out of the minor
Dutch greenhouse operator · 6:49
The host closes the segment by admitting the idea surprised him.
using the heat from an ASIC Miner so that you can grow flowers year round in your Greenhouse is certainly not an idea I ever would have had when I first got into Bitcoin
Mining Disrupt News Surge host · 7:12
What the episode does and does not show
The episode is a round-up of other outlets' clips with the host's commentary, not a reported piece. The Nebraska figures are the testimony's own and cover one facility over one year; the German and Dutch segments do not give the size of either mining setup, the number of machines, or what the heat or power is worth in money. What it does show is the case the industry was making in mid-2023: tax receipts in rural counties, and miners as a buyer for solar power that would otherwise have nowhere to go.
The conversation continues at Mining Disrupt 2027, March 22 to 24 in Irving, Texas.