Buena Vista Biomass Power site Data Center, Ione, California

NewYork GreenCloud has scaled back its plan for a data center at the former Buena Vista Biomass Power plant in Ione, Amador County, California, next to Harrah's Northern California casino. A company spokesperson told the Calaveras Enterprise in September 2026 that it had dropped the pyrolysis process it announced in January and would instead seek Amador County permits to renovate the existing 18 megawatt biomass plant, supplying up to 16 megawatts to the data center.

The company said it was aiming to finish construction by the end of August or early September 2026, but as of a July site visit, District 3 Supervisor Jeff Brown wrote, "they still have not applied for a construction permit or completed an Environmental Impact Report for the AI Center." No county permit approval or construction start has been reported since; about $4 million had been spent on refurbishment by August 2026, with another $171 million planned.

The Plattsburgh, New York company, founded in 2024, bought the plant in January 2026 and said it would use pyrolysis technology from BucSha Energy to feed a "carbon-negative" AI data center, partnering with Atlas Cloud AI to host 2,304 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. The plant began as a coal plant, was decommissioned in the 1990s, and was converted to burn wood waste in 2011 after an environmental review found significant impacts.

Neighboring Calaveras County passed a 45-day moratorium on data center permits on August 25, 2026, citing demands on energy and water and questions about jobs created; Angels Camp moved toward its own 45-day moratorium. The company still needs to apply to Amador County for the renovation permits before construction can proceed.