this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026

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Alberta government publishes pro data centre propaganda (rabble.ca)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by NightOwl@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 49 comments

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[–] kibblebits@quokk.au 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Oh good gravy. Data centres should be in the USA

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

We should have data centres in Canada to keep our data in-house.

The solution is to build them up in the Arctic where it's cold all the time. Might even drive the billionaires to consider global warming for once.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No power sources in the arctic.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Not yet, but there are also no data centres around here yet either... Sooo instead of rushing to build data centres, just electrify the north. SMRs are coming, could be a good project haha

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

He can run an extension cord from his mom's basement in Mississauga.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You should take a drive out of your city centre some day.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not sure the point you're trying to make, but sure

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The point is that it's citidiots that think the "arctic is always cold" If you ever traveled north of Bloor street you might be shocked to find a distinct lack of igloos. Some people even have running water and telephones!

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Alert sitting chill at 3° in the middle of summer... Seems cold to me. Not balls freezing, but still significantly cooler than places further south.

More realistically, Iqaluit is 9°

I fail to see the part where I mention people living in igloos... Sure if you go further south you end up with more temperate weather, but I'm talking about building in places where there is plenty of land to take over to build data centres. Places that are nearly uninhabited, perfect for a data centre lmao.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So drive there. Oh, you'll need to bring the road with you. Also bring all your building materials. And a power plant. Bring your staff too. And food and housing for them. Think of all the money you'll save for that ginormous temperature differential.

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

If I had billions of dollars, it would be great. Coax the government into the expansion for grants along the way.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Now you're thinking! Get the government to pay for your shitty idea! Drop ship it from orbit!

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Man for a second I thought this was Reddit with the lack of awareness... Sweet fuck, keep it up bud! You must not be seeing the way the 1% roll, or you don't understand satire or something idk. Sad regardless...

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I was thinking the same thing! You're a know-it-all-fuck-all who doesn't proofread comments, even after an edit! ✌️

*third edit's the charm!

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You seem to have the wrong person here flagged as a "know-it-all-fuck-all" sorry to say. Might want to consider buying a mirror and learning how to stop while you're ahead.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yay! I'm winning!

[–] brax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Stupidity knows no bounds. Thankfully there's a way to block morons so you never see them again. Hopefully one day you grow self awareness and a modicum of intelligence.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

Bye!

[+] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -8 points 1 week ago (5 children)

It actually makes more sense to build them in Alberta than most of the US to be honest. If these things are going to be run off fossil fuels anyway, it is more efficient to build them local to the fuel rather than building pipelines to ship it elsewhere then burning it there to run those data centers.

The article says itself that the data center is planned to be closed loop water (so effectively no water use) but then assumes that the natural gas power plant WILL be consuming water, when those too can be built with closed loop water systems.

Personally I'd like to see all datacenters require 100% renewable power going forward, but that's not realistically happening.

[–] Tm12@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Keep this shit out of my water.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/meta-datacenter-ai-wyoming-water

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You really will throw every single possible infraction against AI, no mattery how tiny. You're now blaming AI for a contractor disposing of wastewater during construction that ended up having some higher levels of a bacteria in it? How is that in any way the fault of AI? The construction of datacenters isn't somehow different such that it's more likely to generate bacteria wastewater. This is possible in any construction project.

[–] Tm12@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It’s a closed-water data centre owned by Meta which is exactly what has been approved in Alberta.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And what does that have to do with construction water treatment by a specific contractor?

I too can dump contaminated water just doing renovations on my home by leaving it out or not following proper procedures for disposing of it.

There isn't a special AI related cause to it. It's a relatively rare bacteria that primarily impacts immunosuppressed patients when it shows up (which is rare) and there's only four known fatalities, and they mostly picked it up in hospitals while being treated for other things.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971226000780 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5684090/

The contamination from the construction happened while they were doing flush and fill on the pipes at the facility, just like what would happen with any new building that contains plumbing. It can easily be cleaned with standard options like bleach if it's known to be an issue.

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thousand acre ai compute facilities offer significant drawbacks and no tangible benefits to Alberta.

Personally I’d like to see all datacenters require 100% renewable power going forward, but that’s not realistically happening.

Do not expect that to ever happen. Meta's facility will use 1GW of power. Right now as I write this, Alberta is generating a total of 10GW. There are something like 25GW of proposed data centre projects in the queue for the province. Renewables cannot and will not be used for facilities that use this much power. It's impossible.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where the fuck did you get your numbers? Alberta has almost 25 GW of installed capacity right now, and peak demand of something in the neighborhood of 13-14 GW

In 2024, they installed about 1.4GW of Solar and Wind alone.

https://ippsa.com/industry

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I said 10GW generation not capacity, pay attention.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

How does that invalidate the fact that there is 10-12 GW of spare capacity above peak demand already built?

Or that there was 1.4GW of capacity installed in 2024 that could be used to power this kind of data center?

How are your arguments in any way actual arguments against building this?

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're aware that the wind isn't always blowing, and the sun isn't always shining, right?

It's critical to understand the difference between MC and TNG. You should learn about them before going off on people. It's clear you don't understand how the energy grid works.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I can throw acronyms around too.

LCOS for batteries at this point is low enough to make even "the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing" renewables viable.

If renewables are so poor a choice for power, why are they being built in such massive quantities even in places that hate renewables?

Maybe if you understood how the world worked better, you wouldn't get so focused on arguing about what used to be possible and instead focus on what is possible now.

Instead, you're arguing to not build datacenters in Alberta and instead have them in the US because.... renewables aren't always available?

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're in this thread hoping that paradigm shifts in battery tech, AB building refineries, and using what you incorrectly assumed is 10GW of unused headroom in the power grid, all for ai compute facilities.

I'm not sure why you're gunning so hard for ai compute facilities to be built in Alberta specifically, and your unsophisticated understanding of the way energy works makes it hard to take your position seriously.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

What do you mean paradigm shift? BC is literally building 5 grid-scale batteries right now. This isn't future tech, it's something that can be purchased and installed today.

I'm arguing for them in Alberta for the same reason Alberta is arguing for pipelines to be built through BC. They're going to be built somewhere, may as well get the benefits of having them here.

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

They’re going to be built somewhere

This is also an incorrect assumption, and a premise that people and municipalities all over North America are rejecting. What do you make of that?

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

It's not an incorrect assumption. There are far more datacenters being built now than ever before, despite the news about specific locations blocking them. There are still plenty going ahead.

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

500 megawatts across an entire province to be built out over the course of a few years.

I can't understand where your optimism comes from.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

A) "across an entire province" is only 5 locations B) The currently largest active grid scale battery is 3.2GWh, in California. There are projects in planning or under construction to reach up to 40GWh. Again, this is solved tech that you can buy and build today. If you're going to drop a few billion on datacenters, there's not really anything stopping you from dropping a few billion more on solar/wind and batteries. Microsoft is dropping massive money on a Nuclear fusion plant in Washington state that's already under construction.

[–] voluble@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Wrong. Potentia-Viridi BESS isn't built yet. Why are you posting things in this thread that are factually incorrect?

Alberta has 11 of these storage systems too, which I suppose you'd bring up if you knew anything. It's great that battery storage exists but imagining that it will be able to supply ai compute facilities is naive.

Nuclear fusion plant in Washington

Oh sorry I didn't know nuclear fusion was solved tech.

My friend, you're dreaming. You're way out over your skis talking about these things.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Sure. That's why companies are pouring billions into grid scale batteries. I guess you know they aren't worth it better than they do.

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Alberta does not have the refinery capacity to make "local fuel".

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If they're building massive data centers, and power plants, why not build refineries too?

[–] non_burglar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Idk if you've ever play Factorio, but it's the same premise:

Complexity: Essentially, there isn't enough demand to justify the expense and massive investment of money and resources. With petroleum refinement, you get byproducts and you need to either store them or make products from them, so it's not just a plant or two, it's a whole set of them.

Cost: Alberta is rich in extracted, stable crude oil and bitumen, but refineries are expensive. Like, really, really expensive. It doesn't make economic sense to heavily subsidize its processing locally, when it's so much cheaper to send it to the USA and elsewhere.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I do play factorio. Complexity is the point...

However, these power plants don't need or use the oil refineries you're referring to. They are natural gas power plants, and thus need natural gas refineries, which are MUCH simpler and cheaper because it's mostly just a cleaning step. Alberta already refines and consumes about 50-60% of it's natural gas production.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're talking out your ass.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

How?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas-fired_power_plant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-gas_processing

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What's the point. Its still an american company building it won't create any long term jobs. And America laws still apply to all data in it.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

It will create some long term jobs, while it's not like an office with hundreds of people inside of every day it it still requires significant physical upkeep and management.

It's not like there's a lack of space in the area and this will take away from higher density offices.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

it is more efficient to build them local to the fuel rather than building pipelines to ship it elsewhere then burning it there to run those data centers.

Alberta does not make fuel, they make a tar sludge that needs to be refined in the US to make fuel. 100 years of tar sands and they still haven't invested in a decent local refinery.

[–] BlameThePeacock@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

None of that is relevant. Datacenters use electricity, which comes from Natural Gas Power Plants, which use Natural Gas, not Oil from the Oilsands. Natural gas is also exported via pipelines to the rest of Canada and the US.

[–] neonmagician@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

Perfectly in line with Marlainia Smith's stance thus far

[–] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

they want data centres as new customers for their fossil energy, making a mockery of scientists using AI for climate and renewables research