Kevin Hanson – Division 1
Hyper-Scale Data Centre Development Potential
Rocky View has made significant efforts through our Economic Development team this past year to understand and develop our own strategy to become aligned with and exploit the Province’s economic diversification strategy. For a 2-page overview of this diversification strategy, please see www.alberta.ca/system/files/ai-data-centre-strategy-fact-sheet.pdf
“Powering the Future of Artificial Intelligence” is the detailed provincial document and web site that sets a path to securing the province’s position as the most attractive place to build Artificial Intelligence (AI) in North America. It is available at www.alberta.ca/artificial-intelligence-data-centres-strategy
With respect to RVC’s opportunities, Council has already approved steps towards our first hyper sized data centre with the Beacon AI Hub. The Area Structure Plan is coming to Council for public hearing and consideration for final approval no later than this summer. See www.rockyview.ca/beacon-area-structure-plan-review
RVC is considering three other major sector investments. Our EcDev folks arranged that these co-current opportunities were presented to the Council and the Public at the same meeting for ease of comprehension and comparing each proponent’s plans. As it is a crucial step of the public consultation process – I urge folks with an interest to read over Agenda Items D4, D5, and D6 from the April 16 Public Presentation Committee Meeting which can be found under “Past Meetings” at www.rockyview.ca/meetings-hearings. I summarize them below:
Kineticor
Is a developer and asset manager pursuing opportunities to co-locate AI Data Centre Complexes alongside Power Generation Facilities across Alberta to attract business investment to this bourgeoning economic sector. Kineticor wants to collaborate with the County to prepare an ASP contemplating a new industrial campus on 1,120 acres situated 5 km east of Balzac, directly north of Highway 566. The project area, immediately next to three 240 kV electrical transmission lines, and proximal to the County’s water treatment plant & reservoir, is proposed to accommodate a master-planned Data Centre complex.
Kineticor is planned to be a phased build out to a final 900 MW of Data Processing Power. It requires a $50B capital investment, 1,500 construction jobs, and 400 permanent employees once fully operational.
KALiNA – Lone Pine Energy and Data Park
Kalina Distributed Power Limited (KDPL) is proposing to build multiple modular near-zero emissions gas-fired base-load electricity generation power plants plus multiple hyper-scale AI Data Centers. The project will span a 320 acre parcel, north- east of Airdrie on Hwy 791 and adjacent to the same three 240 kV transmission lines. Development would be staged, deploying up to five “Energy-Data Centre Modules” at final build-out. Each module is a 200 MW gas turbine power plant with an associated data centre with 140-200 MW of processing capacity and connected to a carbon capture network.
Each module requires $8B in capital investment, 1,200 person-years of construction labour, with an estimated 200 local employees once running.
Wild Rose Power Hub Data Centre
This potential data center project in first stages of development, is 5 km west of Langdon. The data center would be located directly south of the existing Altalink electrical substations which are tied into the same three 240 kV lines. Spanning 480 acres as data centre only, with 1300 MWvof power generation to be located off-site in another area of the Alberta grid. Phased construction in 200-300 MW processing modules, depending on specific hyper- scaler AI client requirements.
My Thoughts
The east side of Rocky View sports a significant locational advantage within the province due to proximity of the Alberta main power grid, inter- provincial / Montana inter-connects, natural gas pipelines, fibre optic internet backbone, and access to skilled employment. Considering the capital value of these projects, the positive impact on RVC’s industrial assessment tax base would be remarkable.
As your RVC Councillor I personally believe the province’s strategy to burn natural gas in–province with climate-friendly net-zero carbon capture and sequestration as part of the package drives a significant competitive advantage for Alberta on the world stage for green data centre location. It allows Alberta to efficiently extract the resource value of its land-locked natural gas by cleanly converting it into highly processed data and “exporting” the significantly improved value-add in fibre optic pipelines instead. Brilliant.
Contact: KRHanson@RockyView.ca or call 403.463.1166.
