Loring LiquidCool Data Center, Limestone, Maine

The Loring LiquidCool Data Center, planned by Minnesota-based LiquidCool Solutions in a former Air Force warehouse in Limestone, Aroostook County, Maine, is expected to be the state's first large-scale AI data center. It is proposed to start at five to six megawatts and grow to 50 megawatts at full capacity. Governor Janet Mills vetoed a statewide bill in April 2026 that would have capped new data centers, including this one, at 20 megawatts, and the Legislature did not override her veto.

Northern Maine has its own small, independent power grid with a peak load of about 150 megawatts, so a 50-megawatt data center could use more than a third of the region's power. "Adding 50 megawatts to such a small, isolated grid is huge," said Hepeng Li, an engineering professor at the University of Maine. The developers say the site will run on hydropower from New Brunswick, but New Brunswick Power told a reporter it has no supply agreement or memorandum of understanding with the project.

Maine Public Utilities Commission Chairman Philip L. Bartlett II said: "Part of the challenge with data center development we've seen throughout the country is we see a lot of PR statements before real commitments and contracts." The developers also plan diesel backup generators on a site that borders the Mi'kmaq Nation and the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge.

LiquidCool signed a long-term lease in October 2025 with Green 4 Maine, which owns 450 acres of the former base, for the warehouse at the corner of Florida and Kansas roads. The building already has two megawatts of power, and the company has a will-serve agreement with Versant Power for 24 more. It would likely operate as a colocation center, renting server space to other companies, using immersion cooling that LiquidCool says will eliminate water use for cooling the servers.

The bill Mills vetoed, LD 307, would have barred approvals for data centers using more than 20 megawatts until November 2027, and Zien said the company "can live with that" if the cap had passed. Mills said she agreed a pause was warranted given the effect of large data centers on the environment and electricity rates in other states, but that she would have signed the bill with an exemption for a separate project in the town of Jay.

Zien said in March 2026 that he hoped to finish financing within a month and have the center running about six months after that: "We believe that this one will move forward, but nothing is 100% until the money is in the bank, as they say." No update on the financing has been published since.