Saskatchewan says new data centres must be Canadian and supply own power - The Turtle Island News
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By Jeremy Simes New data centres in Saskatchewan must be Canadian-owned and are also required to supply their own electricity, the province announced Thursday. The measures are part of a new framework that Saskatchewan’s government says ensures Canadian data is protected while also keeping utility services reliable. “We felt from the very, very beginning that it was important for Canadian companies to be the proponent companies for data and AI infrastructure,” Jeremy Harrison, the province’s Crown Investments Corporation minister, told reporters. “I think a lot of the reasons have been made even more apparent over the course of the last number of weeks. In the long-term, data and AI security is going to be as important for nation states as energy security is.” Applicants proposing to build data centres must
  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    15·
    2 days ago

    I’m a bit bothered by “supply their own power” because that means gas turbines in practice. I’d much rather they “get permitted power” from the provincial/territorial power generating admin. Not only that but also get permitted water hookup. That way the province controls these resources and it can ask for money to build them out where needed. Not paying the electricity bills isn’t much of a win for people if they have to pay the asthma bill instead.

    • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
      15·
      2 days ago

      I’d go further and say that any new data centre project must also fund a renewable energy project to offset its energy requirements.

  • neutronbumblebee@mander.xyzEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    Which would be fine if it was additional renewable power that was added to the grid and generated by those same corporations or a subsidiary. But how unlikely is that. Keeping the profits but making average people pay for your environmental damage, that’s just business as normal. Same issue as with government AI promises here.

    • Slowy@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 days ago

      It’s okay, it’s fairly improbable that they will be built… it’s still unfortunate that such a flagrant disregard for climate change (which is already hurting us) is being pursued all over North America just because we desperately and urgently need data centres for ??? right away and we simply can’t use renewable energy for them either. Sask, Alberta, and Ontario are probably at highest risk for large data centres actually coming to fruition but there are some substantial hurdles to getting them built right now (chip shortage is a big one). And they may have gotten a little too eager and ambitious during the pump part of the pump and dump, and if the dump arrives early the poor AI companies might be decimated before they can actually get the forsaken things built (hence the rush). Fingers crossed and keep pushing back however you can!

  • Reannlegge@lemmy.ca
    6·
    2 days ago

    If Moe couldn’t be paid off with alcohol I would be all for them needing to put a CANDU reactor in and creating a uranium upgrading centre here in Saskatchewan, where a lot of the uranium is mined.