With data centres expected to soon use as much power as all of Japan, Alberta is pitching itself as the perfect home for the energy-intensive setups.
Driving the news: Alberta’s government is pitching tech companies on the province's potential as a hub for new data centres, and sent two cabinet members to Silicon Valley last week as part of its push to drum up interest.
- Alberta currently has at least six applications from companies wanting to build new centres — projects that could spark billions of dollars in investments in the province’s energy sector.
- Amazon has already signed on to build three new data centres in Calgary, part of a project that will see the company invest $4 billion in the province.
Catch-up: Data centres host rows of high-powered computers that store and process everything from the photos on your phone to online banking transactions. AI companies, which depend on massive amounts of data to train their models, are racing to build them ASAP.
Why it’s happening: Alberta has some advantages for data centre businesses, including colder weather (lowering the costs of cooling the data centres), a deregulated electricity market, and cheap natural gas that generates most of the province's power.
Why it matters: Electricity used by data centres is expected to double by the end of 2026. Alberta, which is expected to have a major surplus of electricity in the coming years, could stand to benefit in a big way from the increasingly power-hungry industry.—LA