publish date 2026-04-15
Welcome back! This is Canaan’s weekly update on bitcoin mining, energy, and compute infrastructure.
Nearly all the electricity that enters a compute facility leaves as heat, exhausted into the atmosphere through cooling towers and chiller loops. Cooling sometimes accounts for up to 40% of a data center’s energy spend. Billions of dollars have been poured into removing heat faster and more efficiently, but comparatively little into asking a different question: what if the heat itself is the product?
That question is getting louder. District heating networks in the Nordics pipe data center warmth directly into homes. A recent Reimagine Appalachia report argues that AI data centers should recycle their excess heat to support local agriculture and municipal buildings. And regulation is catching up: Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act now mandates that new data centers commissioned after July 2026 achieve an Energy Reuse Factor of at least 10%, rising to 20% by 2028.
Not all compute heat is created equal. Standard air-cooled data centers push out warm air in the 30-43°C range, which is useful for preheating, but generally too low-grade for horticulture without heat pumps. Liquid-cooled systems change the math. They can deliver water above 75°C. That’s hot enough to feed directly into a greenhouse’s boiler loop, with minimal upgrading required. That temperature range is ideal for the closed-loop radiant heating that commercial growers depend on.
This is where high-density compute operators have been early movers. MARA’s project in Finland warms roughly 11,000 residents through district heating. The horticultural application may be even more compelling than residential: greenhouses need consistent heat year-round, not just in winter, making them a steadier off-taker for any compute facility producing high-grade thermal output.
The idea behind the Canaan-Bitforest proof-of-concept in Manitoba is to test this directly. The 3 MW project is designed to pair 360 liquid-cooled Avalon servers with Bitforest’s tomato-growing facility. Heat captured through a closed-loop exchange system preheats intake water for the greenhouse’s electric boilers, displacing traditional heating with compute heat. At an estimated all-in power cost of $0.035/kWh and a target of 95% uptime, the system is designed to circulate up to one million tonnes of hot water annually.
The goal is to have a replicable model for anywhere cold-climate compute and growing operations sit side by side. As liquid cooling becomes standard across AI, HPC, and mining infrastructure alike, the pool of facilities capable of producing greenhouse-grade heat is about to expand dramatically. The operators who figure out the co-location playbook first won’t just improve their own margins. They’ll change how the next generation of compute facilities gets sited in the first place.
In the News
Network at a Glance
Project Spotlight
The Avalon2 was Canaan’s second-generation miner, and the machine that turned ASIC mining into a global community movement. Built around the A3255 chip (55nm), it shipped in 145 GH/s and 300 GH/s configurations. The entire hardware design was open-source.
Schematics, board layouts, and firmware were all accessible to the public. Multiple community-designed controller boards emerged on BitcoinTalk. A user known as "Dogie" wrote setup guides that became the de facto standard. Hobbyists worldwide ordered A3255 chips and soldered their own miners, a brief era when you could build your own ASIC at home. 13 years later, the Avalon2 remains a reminder of where it all started.
Events and Media
Follow and Contact Us
Disclaimer: This newsletter shares industry commentary and third-party news for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by third-party sources are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Canaan Inc. For official news, please refer to Canaan’s press releases and SEC filings at https://investor.canaan-creative.com/.
Nearly all the electricity that enters a compute facility leaves as heat, exhausted into the atmosphere through cooling towers and chiller loops. Cooling sometimes accounts for up to 40% of a data center’s energy spend. Billions of dollars have been poured into removing heat faster and more efficiently, but comparatively little into asking a different question: what if the heat itself is the product?
That question is getting louder. District heating networks in the Nordics pipe data center warmth directly into homes. A recent Reimagine Appalachia report argues that AI data centers should recycle their excess heat to support local agriculture and municipal buildings. And regulation is catching up: Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act now mandates that new data centers commissioned after July 2026 achieve an Energy Reuse Factor of at least 10%, rising to 20% by 2028.
https://x.com/IEA/status/2002389799798202489
Not all compute heat is created equal. Standard air-cooled data centers push out warm air in the 30-43°C range, which is useful for preheating, but generally too low-grade for horticulture without heat pumps. Liquid-cooled systems change the math. They can deliver water above 75°C. That’s hot enough to feed directly into a greenhouse’s boiler loop, with minimal upgrading required. That temperature range is ideal for the closed-loop radiant heating that commercial growers depend on.
This is where high-density compute operators have been early movers. MARA’s project in Finland warms roughly 11,000 residents through district heating. The horticultural application may be even more compelling than residential: greenhouses need consistent heat year-round, not just in winter, making them a steadier off-taker for any compute facility producing high-grade thermal output.
The idea behind the Canaan-Bitforest proof-of-concept in Manitoba is to test this directly. The 3 MW project is designed to pair 360 liquid-cooled Avalon servers with Bitforest’s tomato-growing facility. Heat captured through a closed-loop exchange system preheats intake water for the greenhouse’s electric boilers, displacing traditional heating with compute heat. At an estimated all-in power cost of $0.035/kWh and a target of 95% uptime, the system is designed to circulate up to one million tonnes of hot water annually.
https://x.com/humanjets/status/2008558013318418724
The goal is to have a replicable model for anywhere cold-climate compute and growing operations sit side by side. As liquid cooling becomes standard across AI, HPC, and mining infrastructure alike, the pool of facilities capable of producing greenhouse-grade heat is about to expand dramatically. The operators who figure out the co-location playbook first won’t just improve their own margins. They’ll change how the next generation of compute facilities gets sited in the first place.
In the News
- Iran demands crypto fees for ships passing Hormuz during ceasefire
- CoreWeave Lands Anthropic Deal, Upsizes Convertible Notes to $3.5B Amid AI Boom
- Attacking bitcoin mining with a quantum computer would require the energy of a star, academics say
- Solo Bitcoin Miner Beats 1-in-300-Year Odds to Win Full BTC Block Reward
- CoreWeave Signs $21B Meta AI Cloud Deal as It Seeks Another $4B Debt Financing
- CleanSpark Shutters 25MW Tennessee Bitcoin Mine Tied to GRIID Noise Dispute
- Bitcoin Mining Giant Foundry Adds New Pool for Privacy-Focused Zcash
Network at a Glance
- BTC price (USD): $74,290
- Network hashrate: 987 EH/s
- Difficulty: 138.97T
- Hashprice: $33.85 / PH / day
Project Spotlight
The Avalon2 was Canaan’s second-generation miner, and the machine that turned ASIC mining into a global community movement. Built around the A3255 chip (55nm), it shipped in 145 GH/s and 300 GH/s configurations. The entire hardware design was open-source.
Schematics, board layouts, and firmware were all accessible to the public. Multiple community-designed controller boards emerged on BitcoinTalk. A user known as "Dogie" wrote setup guides that became the de facto standard. Hobbyists worldwide ordered A3255 chips and soldered their own miners, a brief era when you could build your own ASIC at home. 13 years later, the Avalon2 remains a reminder of where it all started.
Events and Media
- Today, Canaan published its Bitcoin Production and Mining Operation Updates for last month
- Canaan hosted its first X Space with @DenverBitcoin to discuss home mining, heat reuse, and stranded energy
- Leo Wang will speak at the Energy Stage in Las Vegas on April 29 to discuss how home mining is coming back
Follow and Contact Us
- X: @canaanio
- Youtube: Canaanmining
- LinkedIn: Canaan Inc.
- Website: canaan.io
- Support: Customer Care
Disclaimer: This newsletter shares industry commentary and third-party news for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by third-party sources are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Canaan Inc. For official news, please refer to Canaan’s press releases and SEC filings at https://investor.canaan-creative.com/.
