A data center is to be built on a 120-acre land parcel between the Canadian cities of Calgary and Edmonton.
On October 7, the Red Deer County Planning Commission voted to approve an application for a 1,000 sqm (10,765 sq ft) modular data center on a 120-acre land parcel in Blindman Industrial Park. This will be accompanied by the construction of an administration building.
Visualization of the data center– Red Deer County
Details about the facility’s estimated capacity were not shared.
The county, located in the southern half of Alberta, one of Canada’s western provinces, received the permit application for the data center in mid-July. The applicant, Agritech Haven International (AHI), is a “technology-focused real estate development company” known for backing a vertical farming project in the province.
CEO Sunny Sarpal has said that the data center would be waterless, ultra-low noise, and employ minimal amounts of staff, and stated that the facility would be operated by a “global technology partner.” Future phases of the development could include vertical farming, education and research facilities, and telecom and fiber infrastructure.
Concerns about the potential noise generated by the facility were expressed by citizens throughout the development process.
Alberta’s abundant energy has turned it into one of Canada’s data center hotspots. The province has attracted its fair share of large-scale projects: earlier this month, reports surfaced that tech giant Meta might be eyeing a natural gas-powered data center near Edmonton, and just last year, businessman Kevin O’Leary proposed the development of a 5.5GW campus, dubbed ‘Wonder Valley,’ near the northwestern city of Grande Prairie.