#aidatacentres — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #aidatacentres, aggregated by home.social.
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Ottawa lays out plan for AI data centres as community backlash grows
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It turns out that AI processes pose unique problems for data centres and the grids that power them.
“Compared to a traditional Google search that would consume about 0.3 watt-hours of electricity, an AI query—such as a ChatGPT- or Google AI-powered response—can use up to 10 times as much.”
“Dramatic fluctuations can affect power quality through harmonic distortions’ to the grid.”
Read this concerning report from my colleague Chris Bonasia at The Energy Mix!
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The Alberta government is not telling you the whole truth about the impact of data centres on electricity prices.
But when Premier Danielle Smith was confronted with a Pembina analysis showing prices for consumers are likely going up - by hundreds of dollars annually - she as much as admitted it was true.
Her suggestion was that Albertans should lock in power prices before the massive Meta data centre comes online. And Meta is the first of many with the electricity regulator planning to double the amount of grid power it provides to data centres.
This is a policy choice the government is making, because there are better ways to do this.
Read my latest report for The Energy Mix!
#ableg #cdnpoli #electricity #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #affordability
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#Texas Gov. #GregAbbott on #AIDataCenter Backlash: 'They Dug Their Own Grave'
Jennifer Oliver O'Connell, August 23, 2026
"#NewYork Gov. #KathyHochul (D) and #Kentucky Gov. #AndyBeshear (D) have pushed back against the expansion of #AIDataCenters in their respective states. But with the increasing backlash from communities and individuals toward new #datacenter construction and expansion, even governors that have embraced the #AIRevolution, like #Pennsylvania's #JoshShapiro (D), are now moderating and talking about scaling back.
"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is one governor whose state has embraced the data center expansion. In November 2025, Abbott declared that Texas is the 'epicenter of AI development' in his announcement of #Google building three data center campuses to the tune of $40 million dollars.
"Fast forward to August of 2026, and Abbott acknowledges that much of the community resistance to the construction of new and existing data centers is the fault of the AI companies."
[...]
"Abbott is not wrong. According to a report from #DataCenterWatch, 64 billion in data center projects have been blocked or delayed in #Arizona, #Utah, #Missouri, #Oregon, and #California, to name a few. Even formerly friendly #Virginia is pushing back. #CommunityOpposition surrounds the lack of information provided and the lack of accountability taken towards the citizens who will be most affected.
"Water and power concerns loom large. Many of the newer development concepts, like entrepreneur #KevinOLeary 's 9 megawatt #StratosProject in #Utah, will have their own self-sustaining water and power systems. However, this did not prevent the backlash by #environmentalists and local activists to shut the Stratos Project down, and Utah state lawmakers ultimately backpedaled from their original approval and requested O'Leary cut the project's 400,000-acre footprint down to 10,000, about 75 percent. "
#AISucks #AIDataCenters #AIResistance #USPol #WorldPol #Datacenters #Datacentres #AIDatacentres #WaterIsLife #NoisePollution #LandIsLife #EnergyConsumption
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The AI data centre shenanigans in Alberta are getting more outlandish. More than 12,000 people attended a virtual town hall meeting, with many more left hanging when they weren’t invited to join the conference call.
Municipalities are hiding behind non-disclosure agreements, repeating marketing slogans directly from company promotions, and some are even signing agreements to act as agents for data centre proponents while also regulating them. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
It’s the wild west for data centre developers with little or no guardrails for water use, electricity prices, farmland protection, noise/air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions or local community benefits.
It’s the perfect environment for misinformation to thrive.
#ableg #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #water #electricitygrid #GHGemissions
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Frustrated about the lack of information about data centres in Alberta?
One woman decided to take the bull by the horns and build a website - one source of truth about all the data centres operating, approved, under construction and proposed.
There’s nothing like it anywhere else, including on the provincial government’s website.
I asked Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish, who has complained about misinformation at the recent town halls, several questions about transparency.
Despite promises to get back to me with answers…no response arrived as the publishing deadline came and went.
https://www.theenergymix.com/alberta-woman-maps-out-the-facts-about-power-hungry-data-centres/
#ableg #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #maps #GHGemissions
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Danielle Smith, of all people, should have seen UCP problems with AI data centres coming
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The organizers of the Olds Transparency Project are holding their community celebration event (the power plant application for the data centre was denied)...wait for it...
...in the parking lot of the Town of Olds offices!
Gotta love these folks. They have told me they are far from done with their efforts at accountability for this debacle and advocacy for AI data centre regulations for all.
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The Olds power plant/data centre is not in the public interest. Residents who’ve been fighting it for more than seven months are exhausted but elated. More than 900 people were granted intervenor status in the Alberta utility regulator’s hearing because it was determined they all could’ve been impacted.
It was too much, too close to people’s homes, and even without the government’s promised new rules around siting projects, the AUC said “enough.”
Read the breaking story!
#ableg #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #saveolds #fossilfuels #climate
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The Energy Mix invited me to write an opinion/analysis of Sturgeon County’s late responses to my latest report on their declaration of an agricultural disaster, an outcome almost certainly due to climate change.
When asked about their approval of the Meta AI data centre, the mayor would not agree to an interview but one of the county’s managers replied a day and a half after the story was published. He had a lot to say (1,700+ words by my count) and we wanted you to read it first hand.
A non-disclosure agreement with Meta, a bylaw that blocks public input, “we have no authority” to consider climate change impacts, and absolutely no - we’re not looking at Meta’s conduct or court decisions finding them at fault.
Read the full response from Sturgeon County, with links to sources allowing for a deeper dive.
#ableg #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #disaster #agriculture #climatechange.
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I'll have another piece about Meta's Sturgeon County AI data centre. It's coming out tomorrow and will be posted overnight.
The county's responses to my questions came in a day and a half late, but revealed some surprising things. So, we're running their full answers (with my commentary) in the Energy Mix Weekender edition on Substack. It's free to subscribe!
Most important question now is - WTH does "carbon-ready" even mean? And why is a government official now talking about this as if it is an actual "thing"?
Oh, and there's definitely been non-disclosure agreements signed.
In the meantime, here are seven ways governments can stop secret data centre deals, compiled by a US group called "Public Citizen."
TLDR: Just say no to NDA's
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I've got a breaking news story and I am shocked to report that everyone replied to my emails this time!
O'Leary's Wonder Valley project loses big in the courts today.
Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation wins big.
It turns out transparency is important for Court of King's Bench Justices. They get annoyed as much as we do when information is redacted.
#ableg #cdnpoli #WonderValleyAlberta #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #Indigenous #DutytoConsult #Justice
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If you’re secretly approving a hyperscale data centre powered by fossil fuels in the middle of an agricultural disaster caused by climate pollution, then you should expect to be questioned.
Which probably explains why no one wanted to answer any of my questions. None of the provincial government ministers acknowledged my emails, Sturgeon County promised to get back to me but never did. Meta did not respond either.
Is everyone in denial?
#ableg #cdnpoli #AIdatacentres #disaster #climatecrisis #climatechange #pollution #AIdatacenters
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The Alberta government has been talking about its AI data centre strategy for at least two years and just now decided to create a few web pages defending it. Hmmm…I wonder what could be happening to force them to do this? 🤔
As Nate Glubish has been saying at every news conference about data centres, and recently repeated at the Meta announcement, “We know what’s best for Albertans!!”
The new website pretty much screams that same message to everyone.
https://prairieenergies.substack.com/p/there-is-no-cloud-and-data-centres
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The Alberta NDP wants to hear where you stand on AI data centres.
They are in St. Albert in Sturgeon County tonight (where Meta’s data centre is going) on a “listening tour” 6 p.m. at Red Willow Place, 7 Tache Street.
I had questions about the tour…I’d like to say I received answers but I did not.
And they backed out of an interview with me until after they finish their consultations.
https://www.albertandpcaucus.ca/ai-data-centre-consultations
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Only about half of the data centre decision-makers surveyed said they were holding public forums or investing in local initiatives, while recent national polling shows that only 33% of developers are addressing grid reliability, and only 29% are responding to water consumption concerns.
The report authors suggest “a disconnect between engagement efforts and community priorities.”
You’d think data centre developers would pay attention to communities…but, no. I guess at least $64 billion, 18 state bills and 86 local moratoriums proposed across the U.S. isn’t enough to convince them?
#ableg #cdnpoli #emissions #electricitygrid #AIdatacentres #AIDataCenters #WonderValleyAlberta #wondervalleyUtah #stratos
https://open.substack.com/pub/jodymacpherson/p/community-pushback-blocks-64b-in
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Data centres are coming for the Alberta grid…and a proposed new bridging program will give them an easy way in.
Story updated with full answers from AESO, and more commentary from the Pembina Institute.
“There’s a way to do it that makes sense and the way that Alberta is doing it doesn’t really line up with best practices that we’re seeing across the world.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/jodymacpherson/p/icymi-temporary-grid-power-for-data#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli #Meta #electricitygrid #AIdatacentres #AIDataCenters
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“Hot people hate AI” - Photos from the Anti-AI protest in Calgary at the end of June.
https://open.substack.com/pub/jodymacpherson/p/protest-featured-pokemon-llms-explained
#protest #streetphotography #photography #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #artificialIntelligence
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Read my recent story about the Olds data centre/power plant controversy, if you haven’t already, and get caught up on some new developments…
For example, Synapse has hired a public affairs agency and registered lobbyists in Alberta. Who are they and what government departments are they targeting?
Behind-the-scenes of this story: Find out who didn’t answer my questions and who’s on-the-hook for 680 local interveners’ legal costs. AUC explains the process they use to figure out how much Synapse will have to pay.
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There’s a vacuum of accurate information around AI data centres, and misinformation/disinformation is filling that void…to the detriment of local communities and governments.
Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission said it was an existential threat to democracy.
“What we’re seeing across all democracies, in Canada and across the world, is a high level of distrust in government, a high level of distrust in journalism and in public institutions.”
But the federal government is lagging behind other countries in both creating regulations and funding solutions.
Read my newest article for The Energy Mix.
#AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #democracy #journalism
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RE: https://mstdn.ca/@JEmphatically/116931674609108584
Now with the YouTube link!
Glubish: "So the data centre is the digital refinery, the fiber is the digital pipeline. This is essentially a way for Albertans to benefit from their natural resources at a time when the rest of Canada is making it very difficult to build pipelines to move the hydrocarbons themselves."
(Carney's MOU's and Major Projects promises don't even register...)
https://youtu.be/F3X71XLg_Bo?si=57cGUAUsDlBPQb8s
#AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #ableg #cdnpoli #democracy #fossilFuels
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Kevin O’Leary explains the role of AI in war - “compliance by tenderization.”
“Every data centre built going forward in the US is going to have to give up at least 20% of its capacity to the US govt to protect the future of the US citizen and allied countries.”
https://youtube.com/shorts/BbGOXJ1xiKc?si=CIv5JulkU9Ky0ypU
#ableg #abpoli #cdnpoli #AIDataCentres #AIDataCenters #AI #peace #sovereignty #democracy