Canadian electricity firm Hydro-Quebec has revealed that it has been approached by more than 100 cryptocurrency mining companies hoping to set up shop in the country to benefit from cheap electricity rates.

Marc-Antoine Pouliot, a spokesman for Hydro-Quebec revealed in an interview with CTV News Montreal that the company has already been approached by hundreds of cryptocurrency mining firms. He also revealed that some of the companies have already set up shop in Quebec. The spokesman also revealed that some of the mining firms are already consuming more electricity than the average consumption requirement for the entertainment and sports complex known as the Bell Center.

“One project like that isn’t a problem, but now we’re talking hundreds,” stated Pouliot.

However, the fact that the highly affordable electricity costs in Qebec have started attracting cryptocurrency miners many not necessarily be a bad thing. Some of the towns in the province have been looking for new sources of revenue after the paper pulp mill IN Quebec was shut down a few years ago. As a result, there were fewer jobs and the revenue for the towns grew even smaller.

Some of the cryptocurrency miners have been interested in renting out the space that was formerly used by the pulp and paper facilities. One of the reasons is because they already have the electricity infrastructure necessary to meet high electricity demand. As such, they do not need to set up new infrastructure other than the mining equipment.

Quebec was initially planning to attract major technology firms but it ended up attracting miners because it offers cheap power and the fact that the region has cold weather which is ideal for mining. Cryptocurrency mining is also not likely to be strenuous on the energy supply in the province because there is actually a surplus. Mining cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin require expensive GPUs that consume a lot of electricity and emit a lot of heat. The fact that Quebec has cool weather and it offers cheap electricity makes it an appealing option for miners.

It is not clear whether the cryptocurrency miners that set up their digital currency mining will be taxed by the government. Lawmakers in Iceland recently suggested that cryptocurrency miners should be taxed due to the fact that they draw a large amount of power.