The oldest producer of clean renewable electricity in the United States, Mechanicville Hydroelectric was saved by bitcoin mining. The Mechanicville hydroelectric plant in New York dates to 1897. It was built on the Hudson River to supply electricity to General Electric’s operations in Schenectady. The company has since long abandoned the facility. In 2021, the hydroelectric dam could not make a profit and was going to be decommissioned. Bitcoin mining fixed that when the CEO decided to use some of the electricity to run Bitcoin miners. CEO Jim Besha said selling power to the grid brought in three cents per kilowatt-hour. Bitcoin mining brought in approximately three times as much. He was buying used mining equipment and converting the bitcoin into cash rather than keeping it as an investment. This saved the facility.