Meta is building a 1 gigawatt data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, its first in Canada.
Once complete, the project will represent an investment of more than CAD $13 billion. The facility will be Meta's 33rd data centre globally and is being designed for artificial intelligence workloads and to support its wider digital product offering.
Construction is expected to bring a large temporary workforce to the region, with about 3,000 construction workers on sute. Once operational, the data centre is expected to support more than 300 jobs.
Meta also plans to spend about CAD $60 million on local infrastructure tied to the development, including roads and water systems. The funding will also be paired with grants for local non-profit organisations through Meta's Data Centre Community Action Grants program.
Energy use
Energy supply is a central issue for large data centre projects, particularly those built for AI computing, which typically require far more electricity than conventional enterprise facilities. Meta said it worked with Greenlight Limited Partnership, AltaLink, Capital Power and the Alberta Electric System Operator to plan for the site's energy needs years before the facility is due to come online.
Meta will fund new power generation and grid infrastructure in Alberta to support the site. The company said the data centre's electricity use will be matched by 100 per cent clean, renewable energy.
The commitment comes as North American utilities and grid operators face growing pressure from a wave of data centre construction driven by AI demand. Alberta has been promoted as an attractive location for digital infrastructure because of land availability, access to power development and an established industrial base.
Meta said consumers will not bear the direct costs of the data centre's electricity demand because the company will pay the full cost of its energy use and fund new and upgraded infrastructure. It also said the added investment would improve reliability across the Alberta grid.
Water use
Water consumption has also come under closer scrutiny, especially as operators expand in regions where communities are sensitive to industrial demand on public resources. Meta said the Sturgeon County site will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling, meaning the cooling system will not use water during operations.
Under that design, water use at the site will be limited to domestic needs, fire protection and equipment maintenance. Meta added that it pays the full costs of the water and wastewater services required for its data centres.
The company has set a goal to be water-positive by 2030, which it defines as restoring more water globally than it consumes in the locations where it operates. It also said it discloses water withdrawal and energy use for all of its facilities each year.
Canadian foothold
The Alberta project gives one of the largest technology groups a deeper foothold in Canada's fast-growing market for AI infrastructure, where competition for power, land and skilled labour has intensified.
For Alberta, the project adds another large industrial electricity user in a province seeking investment in digital and energy infrastructure. At 1GW, the planned facility ranks among the larger announced data centre developments in North America.