This post drew some blowback due to the headlines going around about water use and in smaller part due to big tech spying having a negative appeal.
A couple of points:
1. The water use is a concern but the question is: compared to what? Oil and gas uses lots of water, as
@007GoldMiner points out. The other consideration is that not all datacenters use evaporative cooling and many instead have closed loop, using much less water.
2. If you are taking a stand against big tech, particularly AI, you might as well be a monkey smashing a tractor with a stick. It’s going to disrupt, as all revolutionary tech does, and it is going to make things better and worse at once, but what it won’t do is stop simply because you disapprove.
3. We are a resource-based economy and proudly do Oil and Gas extraction, mining, and logging. Datacenters are literally just buildings. The impact on an area is low, considering the benefits.
4. Our resources are effectively trapped—we can’t get as much out as we’d like and that’s not going to change soon. This is a way to sell energy without it leaving the province. The pipeline used to exit our borders is a fibre optic cable.
The world should be building datacenters in Alberta.
Cheap, reliable power: Massive natural gas, deregulated market, self-generation options.
Free cooling: Cold climate slashes energy bills (up to 40% savings).
Low costs: Affordable land, 8% corp tax, no PST.
Pro-business: Fast-track approvals, AI strategy, tax incentives.
North American stability.
Skilled workforce.
Let’s get this done!