Legacy Plant Converting To ‘Carbon Negative AI Factory’

Specializing in developing smaller carbon footprints for AI operations, New York-based NewYork GreenCloud (NYGC) has acquired the closed Buena Vista Biomass Power facility in Ione, Calif., with plans to convert the facility into a 41-MW “carbon-negative AI factory.”

NYGC is working with biomass-to-pyrolysis engineering firm BucSha Energy to convert the existing 18 MW biomass facility into a 41 MW plant that will supply renewable baseload power directly to on-site AI training and inference operations.

The plant began operating in 1975 as a lignite coal-fired facility but was decommissioned in the mid-1990s. Acquired by green energy developers in the 2000s, the site was repowered in 2009 as an 18 MW biomass facility using agricultural waste, urban wood debris, and forest-thinning material under a 20-year renewable power purchase agreement with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). 

The project struggled with viability, and was closed by 2016. Reports show plans are to upgrade the infrastructure, then install the biomass pyrolysis equipment. Planners say the site is upgradable to 36 MW if needed. Total capital expenditures are estimated at $156 million.