A fire at one of the main sites of crypto mining firm Greenidge Generation has forced a temporary shutdown of operations.

The incident at the 106MW Dresden facility in New York state was caused by an “electrical switchgear failure”, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The firm said the fire was “contained and mandated the immediate and complete de-energization of the facility pursuant to automated safety protocols.”

No damage was caused to Greenidge Generation’s Bitcoin miners, according to the SEC filing, and normal operations are expected to resume in the “next few weeks."

The cause of the 23 November fire is unknown, with investigations still ongoing. DCD has reached out to the company for more information.

The shutdown comes at a difficult time for Bitcoin miners, with profitability recently falling to an all-time low.

The hashprice – the dollar value bitcoin miners earn per unit of computing power – fell below $35 in November, and has yet to rise above $40 in December. In 2024, it reached above $200.

The historic lows are causing miners to question the long-term economic sustainability of continuing operations, with some already shifting towards HPC/AI computing.

Last month, Greenidge Generation signed a five-year agreement with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) for its Dresden facility.

The agreement saw the company’s share price shoot up by nearly 40 percent, with Greenidge saying that it demonstrated Dresden to be a “model data center operation."

Since purchasing the former coal-fired power plant in 2016, Greenidge Generation has invested more than $100 million to modernize the Dresden site and turn it into a natural gas facility that feeds electricity back to the local energy grid.

“This new permit includes historic emissions reductions that go far beyond anything required by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) or ever implemented in New York, and validates our national model cryptocurrency operation, which does not pull power from the grid, but rather sends power to it daily,” said Greenidge president Dale Irwin.

“This voluntary agreement speaks to our commitment to being a responsible partner with the state – creating high-paying jobs and providing power to the electrical grid, while meeting the state’s nation-leading environmental goals.”

This month also saw Greenidge enter an agreement to sell two parcels of land totaling approximately 152 acres in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to 300 Jones Road Associates LLC, an affiliate of Lightstone Parent LLC and LightHouse Data Centers LLC. The site has 60MW of power available, and the deal was valued at $18m. Greenidge was previously set to sell the land to Data Journey, but the deal fell through.