After Somerset

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Somerset was almost a nuclear town. In the 1970s, plans were drawn to build a nuclear power plant on the shore of Lake Ontario. But when a fault line was discovered nearby, the project was scrapped. In its place, a coal-fired power station rose from the fields.

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For 35 years, the Somerset Power Station burned coal and lit New York. It was the last of its kind in the state. In March 2020, the plant went quiet—stacks cold, jobs gone. Like many places across the country where coal plants have shut down, the future sat in limbo. Workers scattered and the town scrambled to adjust to life after coal.

Nowadays the site is humming again, but in a different way. Rows of specialised computers mine digital currency. The power comes from hydro for now, but a 125-megawatt solar project has been cleared for construction on site. A handful of the old crew stayed on, trading boilers and turbines for servers and screens. Somerset’s story is still about energy—just not the kind it started with.