Colombia's Petro pitches Caribbean coast as bitcoin mining hub on clean energy surplus

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has proposed turning the country's Caribbean coast into a bitcoin mining centre powered by surplus clean energy, framing the initiative as a potential driver of regional economic development.

In a post on X on May 5, Petro singled out Barranquilla, Santa Marta and Riohacha as candidate sites, stating the plan would amount to "an immense boost to the development of the Caribbean." He pointed to the experiences of Venezuela and Paraguay, where low-cost hydroelectric and renewable power have attracted crypto mining investment, as a regional blueprint Colombia could replicate.

A 2024 World Bank report found Colombia generates around 75% of its electricity from renewable sources, more than twice the global average, while the Caribbean coast holds largely untapped wind and solar capacity. National grid data show Colombia had 21,287 megawatts of installed renewable capacity as of end-2025, according to operator XM.

According to Cointelegraph, Paraguay currently commands roughly 4.3% of global bitcoin hashrate, making it the fourth-largest mining jurisdiction behind the US, Russia and China, with industrial power priced between $0.037 and $0.050 per kilowatt-hour thanks to surplus output from the Itaipú dam.

Petro also called for dialogue with the Wayúu indigenous community — Colombia's largest indigenous group, which resides mainly along the Caribbean coast — proposing co-ownership as part of any future project structure. No mining partner or launch date has been announced.

The president has warned that crypto mining reliant on fossil fuels risks worsening climate change, conditioning his support on clean-energy sourcing. 

The bold proposal, however, faces a pressing political constraint: Petro's term ends in August, and Colombia holds a presidential election on May 31. The leftist leader cannot seek re-election under constitutional term limits, while leading candidates have yet to state clear positions on bitcoin mining or digital assets. Analysts note that meaningful progress would still require regulatory clarity, grid investment and legal certainty to draw private capital. 

The broader economic context sharpens the stakes. Colombia's GDP is projected to expand at 2.8% in both 2026 and 2027, a pace the OECD characterises as insufficient to close the income gap with more advanced economies, while fiscal deficits are set to remain well above 4% of GDP with the fiscal rule still suspended. Against that backdrop, industry body SER Colombia estimates that around $5bn in investment is needed to avert a structural energy supply deficit by 2027, even as the country targets 4.2 GW of installed renewable capacity this year.

Meanwhile, oil and gas still account for roughly 5% of GDP and more than 43% of exports. The Petro administration, which has made the environment a central policy issue, has sought to unwind that structural dependence by halting new exploration contracts.

In such a fiscal and energy context, attracting capital-intensive bitcoin mining to consume surplus Caribbean renewables carries a logic beyond the headline: it would monetise idle generation capacity, diversify foreign-currency inflows and test whether digital-infrastructure investment can partially offset the revenue drag from a deliberate fossil-fuel wind-down, all without burdening the sovereign balance sheet.