The Future Is Not Artificial
Present
Project comparison laboratory

Compare them
properly.

Bars are normalised within each row and never across rows, because these rows measure different physical quantities. Where a project has published nothing, the cell says so — it never shows a zero.

EdmontonCalgaryFort McMurrayGrande PrairieLethbridgeRed DeerBeacon HeartlandMeta SturgeonNOT DISCLOSEDTNE / Data DistrictSynapse OldsBeacon Indus
Projects in the comparison

Status ordering: announced → proposed → under regulatory review → approved → under construction → operating. Only one project in this data set has broken ground.

Dimension Meta Sturgeon Data CentreBeacon AI Centers — Indus ProjectSynapse Data Center Power PlantBeacon Heartland AI HubTechnologies New Energy / Data District — Phase 1
Announced scale Headline facility scale
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Data-centre load Data-centre load
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Generation capacity Generation capacity
Not publicly disclosed
Grid allocation Grid allocation
Not publicly disclosed
Not connected to the Alberta Interconnected Electric System
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Backup generation Backup generation
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Land
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Investment
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Construction jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Permanent jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Cooling
Closed-loop, direct liquid cooling with dry heat rejection
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Water
Company states no operational water use for cooling; site water limited to domestic use, fire protection and equipment maintenance
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory status
Under construction; adjacent Greenlight generation is a separate project and process
AUC Proceeding 30524, application 30524-A001 under the Hydro and Electric Energy Act. Oral hearing commences 18 August 2026, 9:00 a.m.
AUC Proceeding 30732. As of 16 June 2026 the AUC suspended current process steps while preparing additional information requests. Full schedule not determined.
Proposed; approvals still being sought. Listed completion by 2027.
Proposed. Construction listed to begin 2026 in Olds and 2027 in Bonnyville.
Source date
2026-08-16
2026-08-16
2026-08-16
2026-08-16
2026-08-16

Full project records

Under construction

Meta Sturgeon Data Centre

Alberta’s Industrial Heartland, ~35 km northeast of Edmonton · Sturgeon County

Meta’s first data centre in Canada and its largest outside the United States. Ground was broken in July 2026. It is the deep-dive case study on this site because its land, investment, cooling design and power arrangements are unusually well documented — not because it is the biggest or the most typical.

Announced scale
Data-centre load
Not publicly disclosed
Generation capacity
Grid allocation
Backup generation
Not publicly disclosed
Land
Building area
Investment
Cooling
Closed-loop, direct liquid cooling with dry heat rejection
Water
Company states no operational water use for cooling; site water limited to domestic use, fire protection and equipment maintenance
Construction jobs
Permanent jobs
Regulatory status
Under construction; adjacent Greenlight generation is a separate project and process

Who is saying what

What the proponent says

Meta describes a closed-loop, liquid-cooled design with dry cooling requiring no operational water use for cooling, and has said annual site water use would be less than a typical Alberta golf course.

What government says

Alberta Major Projects lists the project at $13.0B, 1 gigawatt, 3,000+ peak construction workers and 300 permanent jobs, and describes it as powered by a natural gas power plant.

What the regulator has verified

The data centre itself is not an AUC generation proceeding. The adjacent Greenlight Electricity Centre is a separate project with its own approvals.

What community participants are concerned about

Sturgeon County has publicly welcomed the investment. Broader debate in Alberta concerns grid access, gas-fired generation and how large loads share transmission costs.

What we still do not know

Chip model, chip count, rack count, PUE, operational WUE, annual electricity consumption, annual emissions and final site layout are all NOT publicly disclosed.

Under regulatory review

Beacon AI Centers — Indus Project

~3 km east of Calgary, ~2 km northwest of the Hamlet of Indus · Rocky View County

The closest large AI-infrastructure proposal to Calgary, and the one being tested in public right now. The AUC oral hearing for Proceeding 30524 is scheduled to commence on 18 August 2026 — this is a live regulatory decision, not a hypothetical.

Announced scale
Not publicly disclosed
Data-centre load
Generation capacity
Grid allocation
Not publicly disclosed
Backup generation
Not publicly disclosed
Land
Not publicly disclosed
Building area
Not publicly disclosed
Investment
Not publicly disclosed
Cooling
Not publicly disclosed
Water
Not publicly disclosed
Construction jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Permanent jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory status
AUC Proceeding 30524, application 30524-A001 under the Hydro and Electric Energy Act. Oral hearing commences 18 August 2026, 9:00 a.m.

Who is saying what

What the proponent says

The applicant proposes a 1,494 MW thermal power plant, of which approximately 1,200 MW would supply co-located AI/HPC data halls under normal operating scenarios.

What government says

Rocky View County is running a parallel Area Structure Plan process for the Beacon AI Hub lands.

What the regulator has verified

The AUC has the application under consideration and has scheduled an oral hearing. It has verified no impacts; it is hearing the evidence.

What community participants are concerned about

Rocky View County formally registered to participate in the AUC review. Concerns raised publicly around Alberta data-centre power plants commonly include noise, air emissions, water, property effects and municipal compatibility.

What we still do not know

Land area, building area, investment, cooling design, water requirement and job numbers are NOT publicly disclosed in the sources used here.

Under regulatory review

Synapse Data Center Power Plant

Northeast section of Olds, east of Highway 2A · Town of Olds

The clearest example of the fully behind-the-meter model: a large gas plant built to power a data centre directly, with no connection to Alberta’s shared grid in the proposed configuration. It also carries the largest backup-generation figure in this data set — a number that is very easy to misread.

Announced scale
Not publicly disclosed
Data-centre load
Not publicly disclosed
Generation capacity
Grid allocation
Not connected to the Alberta Interconnected Electric System
Backup generation
Land
Not publicly disclosed
Building area
Not publicly disclosed
Investment
Not publicly disclosed
Cooling
Not publicly disclosed
Water
Not publicly disclosed
Construction jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Permanent jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory status
AUC Proceeding 30732. As of 16 June 2026 the AUC suspended current process steps while preparing additional information requests. Full schedule not determined.

Who is saying what

What the proponent says

The applicant proposes an approximately 1,400 MW combined-cycle natural-gas plant plus 1,800 MW of emergency and backup diesel generation to power an on-site data-centre load.

What government says

Not separately reported in the sources used here.

What the regulator has verified

The AUC has issued a notice of hearing but suspended process steps pending further information requests. Nothing has been approved.

What community participants are concerned about

Concerns raised in Alberta proceedings of this type commonly include noise, environmental effects, property impacts, municipal compatibility, infrastructure and services, and chemical storage. These are concerns being tested, not findings.

What we still do not know

Data-centre load, land, buildings, investment, cooling design, water and jobs are NOT publicly disclosed in the sources used here.

Proposed

Beacon Heartland AI Hub

Alberta’s Industrial Heartland · Sturgeon County

One of three Beacon campuses in the Edmonton area. Listed by Alberta Major Projects as 960 MWe with approvals still being sought — a useful reminder that a single developer can appear on the map several times.

Announced scale
Not publicly disclosed
Data-centre load
Not publicly disclosed
Generation capacity
Grid allocation
Not publicly disclosed
Backup generation
Not publicly disclosed
Land
Not publicly disclosed
Building area
Not publicly disclosed
Investment
Not publicly disclosed
Cooling
Not publicly disclosed
Water
Not publicly disclosed
Construction jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Permanent jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory status
Proposed; approvals still being sought. Listed completion by 2027.
Proposed

Technologies New Energy / Data District — Phase 1

Four facilities across the Olds, Bonnyville, Calgary and Edmonton regions · Multiple

Four smaller facilities rather than one giant campus, at roughly 240 MW combined. It shows that Alberta’s pipeline is not only gigawatt-scale megaprojects — and that a single map dot can stand for several separate sites.

Announced scale
Not publicly disclosed
Data-centre load
Generation capacity
Not publicly disclosed
Grid allocation
Not publicly disclosed
Backup generation
Not publicly disclosed
Land
Not publicly disclosed
Building area
Not publicly disclosed
Investment
Cooling
Not publicly disclosed
Water
Not publicly disclosed
Construction jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Permanent jobs
Not publicly disclosed
Regulatory status
Proposed. Construction listed to begin 2026 in Olds and 2027 in Bonnyville.