SHARON, Pa. - A bitcoin mining facility that opened up shop in Sharon last year is now looking to expand into a fully operational data center. The building that was turned into the bitcoin facility will be torn down, and replaced with an operational data center.

“It was an old, old industrial site back from the 80’s. It had pre-existing energy already connected to it, so there was no initial and additional pull from the utilities. So it was a site that just made sense for their expansion project,” said Jake Rickert, associate executive director of the Penn Northwest Development Corporation.

The facility is expected to create around 134 high-paying jobs, and an additional 1,300 for the construction of the facility. It is also an over $1-billion investment, bringing in new tax revenue for the city.

“It's more than a billion dollars worth of investment when we go in here. So although it's not the largest piece of land, it's an incredibly expensive process that we're about to undertake. The local community should expect some benefits through the tax, you know, trickle down that they'll start seeing as well. ,” said Liam Wilson, Chief Operating Officer of BitFarms.

Wilson said because of the location and accessibility to power, Sharon was the perfect spot for the project.

“Very close proximity to a large metropolitan area in Pittsburgh. Also, Cleveland is not too far away either. You also then have these huge kind of fiber highways, superhighways that run underneath Sharon. So therefore, you can plug in and then there's an abundance of power up in Sharon as well,” said Wilson.

Rickert is excited for the project but did acknowledge that these types of facilities use a lot of energy.

“They do consume a significant amount of energy. Pennsylvania is fourth in the nation in energy production. So we're primed and we're ready for, you know, the future of this stuff,” said Rickert. “They're going to be kind of our pilot company. Saying, you know, how can we make sure our local companies are continuing to get what they need? But how can we prep ourselves for future growth in these areas, specifically this tech and AI.”

As for the energy being used and environmental concerns tied to data centers, Wilson is making the community a promise.

“We use less than one U.S. household's worth of water every day, because the water stays within the confines of the business. There's no sound effects either. We already run sound testing in the local area, and this will actually be quieter than our current Bitcoin mining operation. So the sound will be fine. The water will be fine. There'll be no contamination in the local area. We'll leave it in a better place than how we found it,” said Wilson.

Wilson said his company is currently going through the permit process. 

“Because the areas around it have been contaminated in the past, we have a number of hoops we have to jump through,” said Wilson.

Discussions on the expansion project started in November. There is no start date for the construction.