BARKER — Lake Mariner Data Center is one step closer to getting the green light from the Town of Somerset for the next phase of construction projects.
Last week, the town planning board approved a proposed site plan from the company that outlines the construction of four additional buildings to house additional bitcoin mining facilities. The plan must now gain approval from the town board.
“Once it hits there, (the town board) will be getting more detailed sketches,” planning board chair Norm Jansen said. “All we did was give them permission to go forward.”
Once it gains approval from the town board, the company must return to the planning board and a public hearing will be scheduled.
According to Jason Assad, spokesperson for Lake Mariner’s parent company TeraWulf, the additional buildings would take approximately four to six months each to complete. The buildings could be converted to a high-performance computing and artificial intelligence data center, he said.
Currently the company has approval for a 250-megawatt power allocation, 90% hydropower from New York Power Authority and the rest from NYSEG, with the potential to increase to 500 megawatts, pending approval from the state.
“We are in the queue and expect to receive approval for the next 250 megawatts in the first quarter of 2025. The power will be delivered by National Grid,” Assad said.
Additional electrical infrastructure will have to be constructed at the site to support the site’s proposed 500 megawatt capacity, he added.
Last month, the company completed construction of a fourth building at the site of the former coal-fired electric generation station, bringing the facility to a total of 195 megawatts of low-cost power.
Similar to the third building that was constructed last year, crews have installed static venting to cool Building 4, as opposed to fans that were installed in the first two buildings.
When TeraWulf sought site approval from the town planning board in 2021, the proposal drew concerns from residents including the prospect of noise from fans used to cool the buildings.
“We did talk to them about the noise issue that they are having with the existing ones, and they said they’re working on it with their studies and everything else,” Jansen said.
Town supervisor Jeff Dewart previously said the town has considered performing a noise study, as some of the previous studies done by TeraWulf have been inconclusive and complaints are still being fielded from some neighboring residents. In response, last month the town board approved the issue of a Request For Proposals to conduct a noise study at homes near the site.