DeepGreen Western Passage SPV LLC Data Center, Eastport, Maine

DeepGreen Western Passage SPV LLC wants to put a data center on the sea floor in the Western Passage, off Eastport, in Washington County, Maine, powered by tidal turbines. The company applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February 2026 for a 48-month preliminary permit to study the site, and on August 19, 2026 the commission accepted the filing as complete, a step short of a construction permit, and set October 19, 2026 as the deadline for public comments and motions to intervene. Eastport's City Council had already voted unanimously on August 12, 2026 for a 180-day moratorium on any data center application, permit or license in the city, on land or underwater.

The man behind the project is Louis Wolfson, a luxury real estate developer and managing member of DeepGreen Holdings LLC, who is also pursuing a similar underwater project in Alaska's Upper Cook Inlet. After federal regulators found the first filing deficient, DeepGreen cut the plan from a 400-acre operational envelope to 27.1 acres and from 51 megawatts to 15, phasing in 16 turbines at first and 34 later. The downsized project is now put at $100 million.

At a May 13, 2026 council meeting, resident Suellen Hendrix said, "This man (Wolfson) is a one-percenter. He doesn't care about us. There's a reason he isn't building it in Cape Cod, where he lives, and he's choosing Eastport." The Washington County Commission had already written to Wolfson on April 9, 2026 that the project "would be too risky for this region and its waters and the people of Washington County who live and work here." The Eastport Coalition for Healthy Oceans, which filed citizen petitions against the project, says data centers "try to circumvent local bans by calling themselves things like co-location storage facilities," and that its petition means "We the People keep approval power over future large-scale development."

Not everyone in Eastport is opposed: Chris Gardner, executive director of the Eastport Port Authority, said in May 2026 that "if the Port Authority is so inclined to say we want to partner with an AI company, our charter allows it." Public comments on DeepGreen's federal permit application are due October 19, 2026, and Eastport's moratorium runs into mid-February 2027 while the city reviews citizen petitions for a permanent ban.