Meta will fund its own power as critics warn of higher Alberta bills
Meta will spend more than $13bn to build its first Canadian data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, and has committed to fully fund the power generation and grid infrastructure the site needs.
According to BNN Bloomberg, the facility will draw about as much electricity as 800,000 homes.
The one-gigawatt project, which Meta can scale to 1.8 gigawatts, carries a total investment of $13bn, or US$9.17bn, Reuters reported, and marks the company's 33rd data centre worldwide.
It is also Meta's largest outside the United States, as per AP News, and CNBC reported the company expects construction to take two to three years.
Rather than lean on Alberta's grid, Meta will finance new supply.
The company has partnered with Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline on the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a 932-megawatt natural gas-fired plant in Sturgeon County that AP News reported will begin operating in the second half of 2030.
Pembina, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor Asset Management confirmed last week they would proceed with Greenlight, and Meta was named Wednesday as its customer.
Meta holds a long-term tolling agreement for the plant, Reuters reported.
Until Greenlight comes online, Alberta-based Capital Power will supply 250 megawatts to the site from its existing natural gas fleet over the next decade.
The project will require roughly 150m cubic feet of natural gas a day, according to Pembina, adding demand for Western Canadian producers.
Premier Danielle Smith, who joined Meta at the Calgary announcement, said the project would generate at least $250m for Alberta each year, according to CBC News.
Meta expects the build to create 3,000 construction jobs and 300 permanent positions, and plans to invest $60m in local roads and water systems.
Alberta's technology minister, Nate Glubish, said the project "won't be the last," with several other gigawatt-scale proposals moving through development in the province, he told reporters, according to Reuters.
The province passed legislation last fall allowing data centres to generate their own power, CBC News reported, and Glubish said the framework was built to avoid problems seen in the United States.
The Alberta commitment lands as investors weigh Meta's wider AI spending.
CNBC reported the company has guided to as much as US$145bn in capital expenditure this year, a forecast that has drawn skepticism as Meta trails OpenAI, Anthropic and Google in AI models.
Meta's stock has fallen about 9 percent this year while the Nasdaq has gained 11 percent.
Alberta's grid is 60 percent powered by natural gas, and Reuters reported its emissions intensity runs almost five times the national average, even as Ottawa's AI strategy last month pointed to Canada's largely low-emission grid as a draw for data centres.
Most projects now in planning sit in Alberta.
The strategy of pushing proponents to generate their own power has drawn criticism.
David Pickup, who directs the Pembina Institute's electricity program, said the plan favours natural gas over cheaper low-carbon options and could lift consumer prices alongside rising LNG exports, in remarks to CBC News.
Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada went further, telling Reuters he wants "a moratorium on mega-data centers" until AI faces legislated protections.
On water, Meta says the data centre will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling to eliminate operational water use.
Gary Demasi, the company's vice-president of data centre strategy and development, said its annual water use would be lower than a typical Alberta golf course and that Meta aims to be water-positive by 2030, CBC News reported.
