Fluidstack Lake Mariner
"Google quietly backstopped about $3.2 billion of AI lease debt at a dead coal plant on Lake Ontario."
7725 LAKE RD, BARKER, NY, 14012 · BARKER, Niagara County, NY
Source: Primary source
Fluidstack Lake Mariner is an operating data center in Niagara County, NY, operated by TeraWulf Inc.. DataCentersExposed has documented 500 MW of reported power capacity at this site.
Reporting by Eric Keller · Updated Jun 17, 2026
Overview
source: linkLake Mariner is a data-center campus on the site of the retired Somerset coal plant in Barker, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. It is owned by TeraWulf (Nasdaq: WULF), which pivoted from Bitcoin mining to AI hosting. In August 2025 it signed two 10-year leases with the GPU-cloud firm Fluidstack for about 360 megawatts, worth roughly $3.7 billion, and Google backstopped about $3.2 billion of those obligations while taking warrants for roughly 14 percent of the company.
The site's edge is the dead coal plant itself. It reuses the plant's dual 345-kilovolt interconnection, avoiding years of new transmission work, and draws NYISO Zone A power that runs about 90 percent zero-carbon thanks to cheap Niagara hydropower. Cooling is closed-loop liquid, with a $290 million infrastructure buildout by Schneider Electric, and the campus is around 500 megawatts live with room to reach 750.
Locally it reads as a coal-town revival. The bigger story is the financing: a hyperscaler underwrites a neocloud's lease at a former crypto miner's site and takes equity in return, a circular arrangement now common across the AI buildout.
Operator chain
- Ultimate parentTeraWulf Inc.
- Files asTeraWulf Inc.
- This facilityFluidstack Lake Mariner
The grid behind this site, right now
source: NYISO · gridstatus- Natural Gas61.6%
- Hydro17.7%
- Nuclear15.8%
- Other3.0%
- Wind1.9%
Real-time generation mix for the NYISO grid this site draws from, as of Aug 17, 2026, 7:55 PM. ISO-wide, not this facility's own metering. Source: gridstatus.
Grid & water — why here
source: HIFLD · EPAThe closest existing grid infrastructure and the municipal water system this location sits in — the same constraints the buildout model screens on (it won't site a campus more than ~2 km from a substation or ~5 km from municipal water). Distances are straight-line to public HIFLD/EPA features, not a metered connection.
In the news
source: GDELT- TeraWulf tops out latest data center at Lake Mariner campus in New York - Data Center DynamicsData Center Dynamics· Mar 20, 2026
- TeraWulf tells investors it could double the size of one of its KY data center projects - Glasgow News 1Glasgow News 1· Aug 12, 2026
- State moratorium clouds TeraWulf data center proposal - Tompkins WeeklyTompkins Weekly· Jul 21, 2026
- TeraWulf (WULF) Faces New York Data Center Freeze But Existing Projects Stay Online - Yahoo FinanceYahoo Finance· Jul 16, 2026
- TeraWulf falls 7% after New York orders one-year pause on new data center permits - The BlockThe Block· Jul 15, 2026
- Gov. Hochul signed a data center moratorium. It’s unclear if it will halt TeraWulf’s plans in Lansing. - The Ithaca VoiceThe Ithaca Voice· Jul 14, 2026
Tax breaks & subsidies
source: Good Jobs First / GASB 77No per-deal tax break is linked to this site yet. No state discloses the recipient of a data-center abatement at the facility level, so per-site deals are rare in the public record. If you have a development agreement or board resolution for this site, send it to us.
Water use
No measured record exists, so this is a low-confidence model from 117 MW (disclosed IT power): 1.2 L/kWh cooling (cool climate) + 0.45 gal/kWh embedded in US grid average. How we estimate. Have a utility document? Send it and we'll replace this with the real figure.
EPA permits & violations
source: EPA ECHONo reported violations as of last sync.
Air quality near this site
source: AirNowAir Quality Index from the nearest AirNow reporting area (Western New York Region), as of 2026-06-10. Regional context — not this facility's own emissions.
Who lives nearby
source: Census ACS 2023Demographics of the census tract this facility sits in (American Community Survey 5-year estimates). Environmental-justice context for who bears the local impacts.
Nearest school
source: HIFLD / NCESThe nearest public school, Pratt Elementary School in Barker, is 2.4 mi from this site (351 students).
Schools are sensitive receptors for the noise, backup-generator exhaust, and traffic a large data center brings. Straight-line distance to the nearest public school (HIFLD/NCES, US public schools only).
Hearings timeline
No public-hearing records linked to this site yet. We surface planning-commission and board-of-supervisors dates when a record names a facility. If you know of a hearing on this site, tell us.