In other parts of the country, data centers are generating their own power rather than using power from the grid. This can be a bad option, but it doesn't have to be. One option is to use hydrogen fuel cells to supply the electricity, which by happy coincidence Rochester already has local expertise in this area. PlugPower, which has local facilities, has recently released a webinar on this topic.
It's no surprise that STREAM doesn't want to investing it's own money in power generation when RG&E will happily sell them the electricity, but that's not a good reason to burden rate payers with extra costs.
- Water
As with electricity, STREAM obviously doesn't want to invest it's own money to provide water when the Monroe County Water Authority will sell them water. But it's interesting that STREAM doesn't plan to use water to cool the servers in this proposed facility. I'm going to speculate that they are not going to use water either because 1) MCWA can't provide them with sufficient quantities of water, and / or 2) the water that MCWA can provide isn't cold enough.
Those of us with good memories will recall that there have been previous efforts to use Lake Ontario water to provide cooling. Xerox investigated this back in the 1990's, and the Town of Webster initiated another study in the early 2010's. I don't know why this was never implemented, but I will guess that a curious member of the county legislature could find out. Those studies were focused on using lake water to chill (air condition) facilities, but a similar concept can be used to chill computer servers. Here's an article about the more recent effort.
Assuming that the barrier to using Lake Ontario water to chill a data center located at STAMP is supply and/or water temperature, one must wonder if STAMP is the wrong location for STREAM's data center. Perhaps Webster or another location closer to Lake Ontario would be a better choice.
AI has the potential to ease suffering and cure disease and make life beautiful and feed and educate the vulnerable. But we all know what will happen: The fascists will steal our faces. And our privacy. And our freedom. And our money. And our homes. And our resources. And our climate. They will bribe our town and city leaders. And our leaders and our media will lie about it. And the WHAM listeners and the FOX watchers in their red hats will believe the lies because they can make a stupid movie with their face in it on their phone. We don’t need data centers. We don’t need more entertainment. We need a future. We are so fucked.
Hold that moratorium and stop this project. Just this fact "GCEDC earns fees from the project, potentially more than $140 million, so it has incentive to approve the tax breaks and environmental clearance." Should be enough to tell you to stop it. Who are the ones getting rich at the GCEDC? This is the real question that will probably stop this very quickly.
How ironic. Plug Power abandoned its efforts to build a hydrogen production facility at STAMP and sold it to - wait for it - STREAM - who is now trying to build this 1.3 million square foot monstrosity there. You can read more about this deal in this Plug Power February 2026 press release:
"The transaction is part of a larger proposed development by Stream Data Centers at the STAMP industrial park, featuring an environmentally friendly, water-efficient air-cooled design and a low-noise profile. Stream Data Centers' development will utilize existing infrastructure and power allocations to avoid any potential cost impact to local communities. Furthermore, Stream Data Centers is proactively investing in the local community as part of the development."
We at the Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Rochester are greatly opposed to this location because of its affects on the Oak Orchard River watershed. Oak Orchard, a tributary to Lake Ontario is a spawning ground for Atlantic, King and Coho Salmon as well as rainbow and brown trout.
Rachel - we laud your efforts to further investigate this STREAM data center. It's a really bad idea on so many fronts. Keep up the good work.
At least there is now a 1 year moratorium on large scale data centers. I’m not terribly hopeful after that. It gives lobbyists and the powerful time to hone their strategies. But it also gives us time.
This definitely gives us time to continue organizing and fighting. I’m involved with the local campaign to stop this data center. If you’re interested in joining other residents, message me!
Monroe county residents have already seen huge increases in electric bills and will not be happy to see more. Whose side is Kathy Hochul on is she for corporations and billionaires or for the people. It’s seems to me she is for billionaires and corporations and does not give a shit about the people of NY. Let’s make it clear‼️ We Don’t Want DATA centers spying on us. Come November I will not be voting for her and I am a Democrat. Hochul scares me with her crazy ideas‼️🤬. I don’t trust her‼️🤡
A vote for Bruce Blakeman would be worse. While I agree with you that she sides with billionaires, she for now has done the right thing and given us a year to continue to fight back. Blakeman will strike down her EO the first chance he gets should he be elected.
A couple thoughts:
- Electricity
In other parts of the country, data centers are generating their own power rather than using power from the grid. This can be a bad option, but it doesn't have to be. One option is to use hydrogen fuel cells to supply the electricity, which by happy coincidence Rochester already has local expertise in this area. PlugPower, which has local facilities, has recently released a webinar on this topic.
https://www.plugpower.com/webinar-reducing-grid-strain-and-supporting-operational-growth-with-fuel-cells/
It's no surprise that STREAM doesn't want to investing it's own money in power generation when RG&E will happily sell them the electricity, but that's not a good reason to burden rate payers with extra costs.
- Water
As with electricity, STREAM obviously doesn't want to invest it's own money to provide water when the Monroe County Water Authority will sell them water. But it's interesting that STREAM doesn't plan to use water to cool the servers in this proposed facility. I'm going to speculate that they are not going to use water either because 1) MCWA can't provide them with sufficient quantities of water, and / or 2) the water that MCWA can provide isn't cold enough.
Those of us with good memories will recall that there have been previous efforts to use Lake Ontario water to provide cooling. Xerox investigated this back in the 1990's, and the Town of Webster initiated another study in the early 2010's. I don't know why this was never implemented, but I will guess that a curious member of the county legislature could find out. Those studies were focused on using lake water to chill (air condition) facilities, but a similar concept can be used to chill computer servers. Here's an article about the more recent effort.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/06/30/webster-lake-ontario-cold-industry/11798879/
Assuming that the barrier to using Lake Ontario water to chill a data center located at STAMP is supply and/or water temperature, one must wonder if STAMP is the wrong location for STREAM's data center. Perhaps Webster or another location closer to Lake Ontario would be a better choice.
Perhaps data centers fully paying their own way is an even better idea.
AI has the potential to ease suffering and cure disease and make life beautiful and feed and educate the vulnerable. But we all know what will happen: The fascists will steal our faces. And our privacy. And our freedom. And our money. And our homes. And our resources. And our climate. They will bribe our town and city leaders. And our leaders and our media will lie about it. And the WHAM listeners and the FOX watchers in their red hats will believe the lies because they can make a stupid movie with their face in it on their phone. We don’t need data centers. We don’t need more entertainment. We need a future. We are so fucked.
Hold that moratorium and stop this project. Just this fact "GCEDC earns fees from the project, potentially more than $140 million, so it has incentive to approve the tax breaks and environmental clearance." Should be enough to tell you to stop it. Who are the ones getting rich at the GCEDC? This is the real question that will probably stop this very quickly.
How ironic. Plug Power abandoned its efforts to build a hydrogen production facility at STAMP and sold it to - wait for it - STREAM - who is now trying to build this 1.3 million square foot monstrosity there. You can read more about this deal in this Plug Power February 2026 press release:
https://www.thebatavian.com/press-release/plug-power-sells-stamp-site-to-stream-data-centers-in-deal-worth-up-to-142-million
I especially enjoyed this paragraph:
"The transaction is part of a larger proposed development by Stream Data Centers at the STAMP industrial park, featuring an environmentally friendly, water-efficient air-cooled design and a low-noise profile. Stream Data Centers' development will utilize existing infrastructure and power allocations to avoid any potential cost impact to local communities. Furthermore, Stream Data Centers is proactively investing in the local community as part of the development."
We at the Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited in Rochester are greatly opposed to this location because of its affects on the Oak Orchard River watershed. Oak Orchard, a tributary to Lake Ontario is a spawning ground for Atlantic, King and Coho Salmon as well as rainbow and brown trout.
Rachel - we laud your efforts to further investigate this STREAM data center. It's a really bad idea on so many fronts. Keep up the good work.
Dan Hucko, Climate Change Coordinator
Seth Green Chapter - Trout Unlimited - Rochester
At least there is now a 1 year moratorium on large scale data centers. I’m not terribly hopeful after that. It gives lobbyists and the powerful time to hone their strategies. But it also gives us time.
This definitely gives us time to continue organizing and fighting. I’m involved with the local campaign to stop this data center. If you’re interested in joining other residents, message me!
Monroe county residents have already seen huge increases in electric bills and will not be happy to see more. Whose side is Kathy Hochul on is she for corporations and billionaires or for the people. It’s seems to me she is for billionaires and corporations and does not give a shit about the people of NY. Let’s make it clear‼️ We Don’t Want DATA centers spying on us. Come November I will not be voting for her and I am a Democrat. Hochul scares me with her crazy ideas‼️🤬. I don’t trust her‼️🤡
A vote for Bruce Blakeman would be worse. While I agree with you that she sides with billionaires, she for now has done the right thing and given us a year to continue to fight back. Blakeman will strike down her EO the first chance he gets should he be elected.