Vulcan Infrastructure and Power Inc (formerly Greenidge Generation Yates County facility) data center, Dresden, New York

The former Greenidge bitcoin mine and gas power plant at Dresden, in Yates County, New York, is being turned toward AI data centers by its owner, which changed its name in August 2026 from Greenidge Generation to Vulcan Infrastructure and Power. Atlas Holdings bought the plant in 2014, and a bitcoin mine started there in March 2020. Vulcan says it has left its historical bitcoin mining behind and has secured approval for 60 megawatts of non-curtailable grid power at Dresden, working with New York State Electric and Gas on the upgrades needed. The plant can generate about 106 megawatts and previously sent up to 60 megawatts to its bitcoin miners while selling electricity to the grid; Vulcan said the power plant's operation would not change under the data center conversion.

For years the fight was over its air permit. Greenidge applied to renew its Title V air permit in 2021, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation denied it in 2022, finding renewal inconsistent with the greenhouse gas limits in New York's climate law. The denial was upheld on appeal and then overturned by the state Supreme Court in November 2024, and Greenidge and the DEC have since settled: the DEC will issue a renewed permit after public process, requiring a 44% cut in permitted emissions and a 25% cut in actual emissions by 2030, and Greenidge dropped its appeal.

Yvonne Taylor's drinking water comes out of Seneca Lake through a pipe that runs down the hill from her house. She is vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian, and her worry about the power plant and data center is specific: "If there's a harmful algal bloom in front of my water source, I can't use my water at all. I can't flush the toilet, I can't shower, I can't bathe." The plant discharges warm water into Seneca Lake and into nearby Keuka Lake, which is what residents fear will feed cyanobacteria and set off algal blooms. "They're behaving like a petulant, rich child, because they don't like the answer that they get," Taylor said of the company's appeals. Seneca Lake Guardian, the Sierra Club and the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes sued under the Clean Water Act in 2023; the case was dismissed, the court finding the company's permit application sufficient.

The next hurdle is New York's own. In July 2026 Governor Kathy Hochul ordered the DEC to hold discretionary permit applications for data centers of 50 megawatts or more while the state studies their environmental impact. The DEC told Gothamist it had not received a new application for the Vulcan conversion and did not say whether it would fall under the pause.