Alberta Premier Danielle Smith outlines the province's strategy to attract global artificial intelligence computing facilities by leveraging natural gas power.
Choseno National News Desk
Provincial and federal political affairs reporting
EDMONTON, Alta. — Premier Danielle Smith has detailed Alberta's strategy to market the province as a premier North American destination for energy-intensive artificial intelligence data centres, referring to the computing facilities as the next generation of "digital refineries."
Speaking at an economic forum in Edmonton, Smith emphasized that Alberta's abundant natural gas supply and deregulated electricity market provide competitive advantages for tech firms seeking baseload power.
"Global computing and AI demand immense volumes of reliable, round-the-clock baseload power," Premier Smith said. "Alberta is uniquely positioned to deliver the energy required to fuel high-tech data hubs, creating high-paying tech jobs while utilizing our natural resource strengths responsibly."
The province is currently reviewing regulatory pathways to allow data centre operators to co-locate with private natural gas generation facilities to prevent strain on municipal power grids.
Industry groups and local municipalities across the Calgary-Edmonton corridor have engaged with provincial officials regarding water usage, cooling technology, and infrastructure tax revenue generated by incoming tech campus developments.