Bitcoin operation ignites debate around the waste from coal mining in Pennsylvania

One bitcoin mining operation has found a solution to the huge amount of energy needed to keep it running -- burning the leftover material from Pennsylvania coal mining.

A once-dormant power plant is humming with activity outside Pittsburgh as thousands of miners work 24 hours a day.

The miners at this site aren’t people, but supercomputers running complex math equations. The first to solve the equation is rewarded with the digital financial token known as bitcoin.

But the large amount of power needed to run these computers has re-ignited a debate in Pennsylvania and around the country about the potential climate consequences of cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin is a type of digital money not regulated by any company or government. It can be exchanged online between people anywhere in the world without going through a bank. While coins like quarters or pennies are physically minted -- bitcoin is minted as a virtual token by computers, through a process called “mining.”