Crypto mining firm to move Glencoe, MN, site, become AI data center

Mankato

Revolve Labs has proposed an “operation change” as part of a multimillion-dollar expansion.

By Jp Lawrence

GLENCOE, MINN. – Eddie Gould and Sandra Olson walked onto their back porch on a brisk Tuesday night, the buzzing of the crypto mining facility across the street from their home audible.

Their outspoken complaints about the constant noise over the last three years — which has made them few friends in this rural community — could finally lead to relative quiet.

Revolve Labs, the Colorado-based company that operates the crypto-mining operation in Glencoe, has announced plans to build a new site farther away from homes, with the possibility of removing the noisy machines that have led to numerous complaints.

The move would be part of a “potential site design and operation change” that could include a $40 million to $60 million expansion of the company’s facilities. The plan would include the purchase of a 6-acre parcel of land from Seneca Foods Corp., on the west side of this city of about 5,700 people some 50 miles west of the Twin Cities.

Revolve Labs would install one or two AI data centers, as well as cooling systems and backup generators, according to a handout presented by the company at a meeting with the Glencoe Economic Development Authority.

The expansion is partially motivated by the company’s desire to pivot away from crypto mining, a representative for Revolve Labs said at a public hearing Tuesday night in Glencoe.

“This is a benefit for not only us but also the community, to transition our business further west and also transition into AI data hosting,” said Jeff St. Onge, senior operations manager at Revolve Labs.

Companies such as Best Buy have been investing millions into artificial intelligence, used for automating increasingly complicated tasks such as financial modeling and creating viral meme videos that replicate the voices of celebrities.

If Revolve Labs, formerly known as Bit49, can start bringing in revenue at the new AI data center, the company should be able to move or decommission the machines at the existing site, St. Onge said.

“The ideal would be to phase out our current site and move everything over to the new site,” St. Onge said at the public hearing.

Several Glencoe residents at the hearing, which addressed whether to rezone the property Revolve Labs intends to buy, appeared skeptical about the company’s proposal. “Revolve Labs has not proven themselves to be good neighbors,” Gould said to St. Onge at the hearing.

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But many at the public hearing seemed to welcome the possibility that the company might remove the noisy machines at its current site, which is near the town’s 646,000-square-foot Seneca Foods plant, a Dairy Queen and the corner of a residential neighborhood.

Crypto mining uses huge amounts of computing power, which requires banks of fans for cooling. Over the past few years, the noise of the fans has led to complaints from residents living near crypto mining facilities nationwide.

In southwestern Minnesota, similar concerns about noise led to dozens of residents in Windom voicing their opposition in August to a conditional use application by Revolve Labs to build a facility there. The company pulled out of the proposal a month later, citing feedback from the community.

Glencoe City Council Member Sue Olson, who spoke at the hearing, said she appreciates companies investing in small towns such as Glencoe, but noted that she keeps getting sound complaints from residents in her precinct, even as Revolve Labs has attempted to fix the issue.

Revolve Labs said it built a 16-foot-tall fence to deaden noise and installed exhaust shrouds to redirect air from the cooling fans so the sound goes upward instead of toward neighboring homes.

Now residents farther from the site are complaining, Olson said, wondering if the new fence is redirecting noise to other parts of town.

She noted that while Gould and Sandra Olson, the couple across the street from the facility, have been most outspoken about their unhappiness, many others have complained to her privately about the noise.

“We’re just a community with a lot of nice people who don’t want to complain, don’t want to make trouble, don’t want to draw attention to themselves, but that doesn’t mean they’re not suffering from it,” Sue Olson said.

The proposed new site is 900 feet from the nearest home and will be built to dampen sound, St. Onge said, adding that AI data centers are typically less noisy than crypto mining facilities.

The planning commission agreed to recommend approving rezoning of the Revolve Labs’ proposed new site from residential to industrial on Tuesday.

St. Onge also said the new facility will bring in jobs and additional revenue to Glencoe.

The city’s partnership with Revolve Labs has brought in more than half a million dollars a year in net revenue and has paid for streetlight projects, said Dave Meyer, general manager of the Glencoe Light and Power Commission. Meyer said concerns about the high levels of electricity usage from Revolve Labs have not come to pass.

Mark Hueser, a grain buyer and a City Council member, said at Tuesday’s public hearing that he liked the new plan by Revolve Labs, and acknowledged three contentious years trying to fix the problem of sound pollution.

“I think we finally have a solution to the noise staring us in the face,” Hueser said.

Jp Lawrence is a reporter for the Star Tribune covering southwest Minnesota.

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