Project includes the first 22 modular data centers built and used at scale
Albany, NY – 
(NewMediaWire) – October 21, 2021 – Mechanical Technology, Incorporated (“MTI” or the “Company”), (NASDAQ: MKTY), the parent company of EcoChain, Inc. (“EcoChain”), a cryptocurrency mining business powered by renewable energy, and Soluna Computing today announced that their first greenfield modular data center (MDC) project has been energized. The project, which includes 22 buildings, began energizing on September 30, 2021, and will reach full capacity of 25 megawatts (MW) in November 2021, a month ahead of schedule.
The project uses Soluna’s proprietary design for MDCs to mine cryptocurrency.Alternately known as “Anaconda” in MTI investor briefings, ProjectSophiewas named after Sophie Wilson, a computer scientist who invented a custom chip processing technology known as ARM. Added to their existing 3 MW pilot project that came online last year, and the 25 MW Project Marie, Project Sophie will bring the companies’ combined portfolio of operating assets to over 50 MW.
“Project Sophie demonstrates the team’s ability to get facilities built on budget ahead of schedule,” said MTI CEO Michael Toporek. “In today’s supply chain challenged world, it’s a tremendous accomplishment. Our team’s demonstrated engineering excellence will next be engaged in building out 100MW to 200MW of facilities in 2022.”
Soluna’s MDCs are designed to use clean energy resources to efficiently run high-intensity computing processes, such as cryptocurrency mining. The MDCs run an industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE) of under 1.02, and the flexible design allows for different types of computing to be conducted in the future, such as application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) and graphics processing units (GPU). The MDCs’ relatively small footprint and highly efficient advanced thermodynamic systems allow them to be placed either on-site or close by the generation source, such as wind farms, solar farms, or even hydroelectric dams. The computing processes can be timed to take advantage of the best available electricity prices, contribute a complementary revenue stream for the generation asset owner, and balance the local grid.
“Cryptocurrency has a dirty energy problem, and clean energy has a curtailment problem. Deploying efficient, scalable modular data centers on-site can help renewable energy asset owners recover lost revenue by eliminating curtailed energy,” said Soluna Computing CEO John Belizaire. “Project Sophie uses primarily hydroelectric power, and future MDC projects will be vertically integrated on-site at wind and solar power plants.”
MTI and Soluna’s second greenfield MDC project, Project Dorothy, will come online with 50 MW by the end of Q1 2022.
View MTI’s September 2021 Flash UpdateHere
View Project Sophie Web Page and Live Stream Here
About MTI
MTI is the parent company of MTI Instruments, Inc. and EcoChain, Inc. Through EcoChain, MTI develops cryptocurrency mining facilities powered by renewable energy that integrate with the blockchain network. Through MTI Instruments, MTI is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of test and measurement instruments and systems that use a comprehensive array of technologies to solve complex, real-world applications in numerous industries. Those include manufacturing, electronics, semiconductor, solar, commercial and military aviation, automotive and data storage. For more information about MTI, please visit https://www.mechtech.com.
About Soluna Computing
Soluna’s scalable, on-demand data centers buy every excess megawatt from renewable energy projects, increasing project revenue while eliminating wasted energy. Implementing Soluna data centers is a low-risk, low-friction process due to the company’s four pillars of expertise: Project development, energy markets, project finance and computing technology. Soluna has molded this unique expertise into a proven project finance structure and revenue-generating solution. For more information, please visitwww.SolunaComputing.com.
Contact Information:
Lisa Brennan
lbrennan@mtiinstruments.com
Investor Relations:
Kirin Smith, President
PCG Advisory, Inc.
Ksmith@pcgadvisory.com