Meta (Nasdaq: META) announced plans Wednesday to build its first Canadian data center in Sturgeon County, Alberta, a $13 billion investment the province is calling one of the largest private-sector projects in Canadian history.
The 2.9-million-square-foot facility, located northeast of Edmonton, will be Meta’s 33rd data center globally and its largest outside the United States. The campus will sit on 1,750 acres, well over the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park, and consume roughly as much electricity as the entire city of Edmonton draws today.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the deal validation of a two-year courtship strategy aimed at major tech players. “We believe our province can compete with any jurisdiction on Earth and what we have to offer,” she said.
Technology and Innovation Minister Nate Glubish credited a deliberate regulatory push. “Landing the largest data centre project in Canada’s history didn’t happen by accident. It happened by design,” he said, citing a provincial concierge team built to move projects like this one through approval quickly.
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Construction will create more than 3,000 jobs and support 300 permanent operational roles once running, and the site is projected to generate roughly $250 million a year for Albertans through royalties, taxes, levies and fees.
Meta is separately investing about $60 million in local infrastructure improvements, including roads and water systems. Frost Collective, a joint venture between Clark Builders and PCL Construction, will serve as general contractor.
Meta’s power strategy blends two sources: roughly 970 megawatts of grid-connected electricity, including a separate 10-year, 250-megawatt supply deal with Capital Power, paired with new on-site natural gas generation capable of scaling toward 1,800 megawatts at full buildout.
The on-site portion comes from the Greenlight Electricity Centre, a $4.6 billion, 932-megawatt gas plant being built nearby by Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and Kineticor, whose final investment decision was announced just six days earlier without naming its customer. Meta doesn’t own the plant; it’s buying the power under contract.
The province says the arrangement will reduce Alberta ratepayers’ own transmission costs by up to 6%.
The facility will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling that requires no operational water for cooling itself, with water use limited to domestic needs, fire protection, and equipment maintenance, subject to approval under Alberta’s Water Act.
David Pickup, director of the Pembina Institute’s electricity program, said the deal shows how “Alberta’s current energy policy and market framework is being designed to structurally lock in demand for natural gas above all other options, even if it means higher and more volatile costs for consumers.”
He warned that data center demand, combined with rising LNG exports, will expose Albertans to more intense competition for the gas they rely on to heat their homes. Reaction on r/Alberta ran skeptical too, with commenters calling the announcement “disgusting” and questioning who the project actually benefits.
