Hut 8 Sells 310 MW Ontario Power Plants to Prioritize Bitcoin, HPC Infrastructure
Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) has agreed to sell a portfolio of four natural-gas power plants totaling 310 megawatts in Ontario, marking the latest step in the company’s effort to prioritize bitcoin and HPC infrastructure.
Hut 8 said on Monday that it entered into a definitive share purchase agreement with TransAlta Corporation (NYSE: TAC), one of Canada’s largest publicly traded power generators, to acquire the 310-megawatt portfolio currently operated by Far North Power Corp., an entity jointly owned by Hut 8 and Macquarie Equipment Finance.
The sale concludes a two-year process that began when Hut 8 and Macquarie acquired the same four plants out of bankruptcy in late 2023. The facilities—located in Kapuskasing (40 MW), Kingston (110 MW), Iroquois Falls (120 MW), and North Bay (40 MW)—were previously owned by Validus Power, Hut 8’s former energy supplier, which filed for creditor protection that August. Hut 8 and Macquarie submitted the successful stalking-horse bid and took control of the assets through a court-supervised restructuring.
Since assuming ownership, Hut 8 said it undertook a multi-phase effort to stabilize operations and restore the plants as revenue-generating assets. Earlier this year, Far North secured five-year capacity contracts for the entire 310-MW portfolio through Ontario’s IESO Medium-Term 2 auction, shifting the plants from shorter-term seasonal arrangements to long-duration, investment-grade-backed revenue commitments.
Hut 8 did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.
Hut 8 framed the divestment as consistent with its capital-allocation strategy, which emphasizes power-first digital infrastructure development—particularly large-scale compute—over owning and operating standalone generation assets.
For TransAlta, the acquisition expands its footprint in Ontario with a set of fully contracted, dispatchable assets. CEO John Kousinioris said the plants will play a meaningful role in supporting reliability as electrification and population growth increase demand, and highlighted potential upside from future re-contracting and co-located land.
