Calling it “one of the largest private sector investment in Canadian history,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Meta’s vice-president of Data Centres, Gary Demasi, announced plans Wednesday for the company to spend $13 billion to build a new data centre in Sturgeon County, just north of Edmonton.
Meta claims the project will employ 3,000 people during the peak of construction and create approximately 300 full-time jobs when its operational.
In addition, the government of Alberta says it will generate approximately $250 million annually in royalties, taxes, levies and fees.
“Meta is also investing approximately $60 million in local infrastructure improvements, including roads and water infrastructure,” said Smith.
“In addition, Alberta ratepayers will see approximately a six-per cent reduction in the transmission portion of their electricity bills through Project Green Light, which is a $4.6 billion, 970-megawatt natural gas fired electricity generation facility that was announced last week by Pemina Pipeline Corporation, Kineticor, and Morgan Stanley infrastructure partners.
“This facility will generate electricity using natural gas produced right here in Alberta — electricity that will help to power this data centre.”
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Meta (its full name it Meta Platforms) is a massive global tech conglomerate that is the parent company of such social media platforms as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads.
With the boom in artificial intelligence, there have been a growing number of proposals to build data centres in Canada — some of mind-boggling scale, often requiring enough electricity to power a whole city.
The dizzying growth of the industry has also prompted increasing pushback over concerns about water use, pollution and the cost and availability of power in nearby communities.
Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, has called for a moratorium on “megadata centres” until there are legislated environmental and human rights protections on AI.
“We’re seeing these kinds of promises made all by AI data centre proponents around the world, but the reality is that these are billionaires trying to steal our water and pollute the air so they can double our electricity while taking away our jobs.”
Meta claims its data centre will feature a closed-loop water cooling system so it won’t draw water from the surrounding area, and on-site water use will be limited to domestic uses such as fire protection systems and equipment maintenance applications.
Meta has also promised to spend $60 million to improve local infrastructure, such as roads and water systems.
However, Bek MacIntosh, who has been involved in the fight against a huge data centre near her hometown of Olds, Alta., says the potential impacts of such huge developments go beyond electricity consumption and water use. She’s concerned about the “unknown details,” and typically she says governments are “not supportive in getting the information out to their communities.”
When asked why Albertans should trust Meta in construction of this project, Smith said the area where the new data centre is being built — Alberta’s Industrial Heartland — was specifically designed for heavy industrial use.
“This is being sited in an industrial area that has been established for four decades. There was supposed to be 12 refineries on that site” Smith said.
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