A brewery in New South Wales, Australia, has found a new way to use extra solar power. Instead of sending unused electricity back to the power grid, Hawkesbury Brewing Co uses it to run Bitcoin mining computers. The heat from these computers is then used to make beer.

The brewery is located in Lisarow on the New South Wales Central Coast. It has 16 Bitcoin mining ASICs that only run when the brewery's solar panels produce more electricity than the business needs. This means the system only uses extra renewable energy.

The brewery says the project was never meant to focus on making money from Bitcoin. Instead, the goal was to make better use of the extra solar energy.

"People often think this is a Bitcoin story, but it's really an energy story," Operations Manager Adam Neale told BeerAndBrewer. "Every brewery needs heat – we've simply found a smarter way to produce it."

Bitcoin mining computers create a lot of heat while they work. At Hawkesbury Brewing Co, the computers are placed in a special liquid that does not conduct electricity. The liquid cools the computers while also heating up to about 90 degrees Celsius.

The hot liquid then passes through a heat exchanger. This transfers the heat to the brewery's water supply. The hot water is used for brewing beer, cleaning equipment and washing bottles.

"The computers produce a lot of heat," Neale said. "Rather than letting that go to waste, we capture it and use it to heat the water we need every day for brewing and cleaning."

The brewery makes about 100,000 liters of beer every month. The heat from the Bitcoin mining computers now provides all of the hot water needed for daily operations.

The idea came after the brewery noticed it was producing more solar power than it could use during the day. Selling the extra electricity back to the grid did not earn much money. Battery storage was also not a good option because of insurance concerns about storing batteries near alcohol.

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"We hit a crossroads where we knew we couldn't save any more energy anywhere else," Neale said.

Instead, the brewery decided to use the extra electricity to power Bitcoin mining computers. This allowed the business to earn bitcoin while also producing useful heat.

According to the brewery, the mining system earns about $2,000 a month. That income almost covers the brewery's electricity bills. Because the computers only run on extra solar power, the brewery says the system adds no extra energy costs and produces no carbon emissions.

"The Bitcoin is an added bonus, but the real benefit is making better use of our renewable energy while reducing our operating costs," Neale said. Experts say the project shows that the heat produced by Bitcoin mining can be put to good use instead of being wasted.

Sean Foley, a professor of applied finance at Macquarie University, said Bitcoin mining uses much more electricity than a normal computer, which is why it produces so much heat.

"It's a waste product, effectively, of the Bitcoin mining process," Foley told ABC News. "If you can utilize that heat for some sort of purpose … for heating, that's fantastic."

The brewery believes the same idea could be used in other places that need large amounts of hot water. These include public swimming pools, apartment buildings and factories.