Every number, traced

Citations

Each figure on this site links back to a primary source, usually the filing rather than the coverage of it. If a claim is not sourced here, it does not belong on the site.

  1. Alberta Electric System Operator, “AESO Announces Interim Approach to Large Load Connections.” aeso.ca
  2. Alberta Electric System Operator, “Large Load Projects” tracker (project IDs and allocated megawatts). aeso.ca
  3. Bennett Jones, “Large Load Integration on Alberta’s Electricity Grid: The AESO’s Proposed Approach for Data Centre Connections.” bennettjones.com
  4. CBC News, “Alberta’s power grid ‘cannot possibly connect’ all proposed data centres, system operator says.” cbc.ca
  5. McCarthy Tétrault, “Alberta Faces a Surge in AI Data Centre Power Demand: AESO Responds with Phased Connection Plan.” mccarthy.ca
  6. Meta, “Breaking Ground on Meta’s First Data Center in Canada.” about.fb.com
  7. Government of Alberta, Major Projects register, “Technologies New Energy & Data District Data Centres (Phase 1).” majorprojects.alberta.ca
  8. The Narwhal, “Alberta regulator rejects Canada’s largest data centre.” thenarwhal.ca
  9. Maclean’s, “The Farmers Who Fought a Data Centre and Won.” macleans.ca
  10. Government of Alberta, “Who Benefits, AI Data Centres in Alberta.” alberta.ca
  11. CBC News, “Alberta government kicks off town hall tour on data centre development,” and Canada’s National Observer, “At a testy town hall, Albertans decry data centre rush.” cbc.ca · nationalobserver.com
  12. CBC News, “Alberta wants to become an AI data centre hub, but this rural county just rejected a big proposal” (Rocky View rejects Kineticor Asset Management’s campus, 6–1). cbc.ca
  13. Medicine Hat News, “Alberta county puts moratorium on data centre proposals after public pushback.” medicinehatnews.com
  14. CBC News, “No provincial environmental impact assessment required for Kevin O’Leary’s proposed Wonder Valley data centre.” cbc.ca
  15. Canada’s National Observer, “Alberta municipality hid deal for Kevin O’Leary data centre during key public hearings” (and the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation’s water-licence litigation). nationalobserver.com
  16. Bartow County, Georgia, Office of the County Administrator, “Data Centers: Bartow County Policy Statement,” August 2026 (a 100 MW tower-cooled site uses about 500,000 US gallons , roughly 1.9 million litres , a day; closed-loop and air-cooled designs cut consumption by up to 95%). bartowcounty.gov (PDF)
  17. Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), “Data Centers in Virginia,” Report 598, December 2024 (the industry used about 2.1 billion US gallons in 2023, just over a third of it reclaimed water; most data centres use about as much as a large office building; industry use was 2 to 21% at the six utilities reviewed). jlarc.virginia.gov (PDF)
  18. Government of Alberta, “How do data centres use water?” and the AI Data Centres hub (First In Time, First In Right; a new data-centre licence would be among the most junior in a basin; household use is never curtailed; most southern-Alberta basins closed to new surface-water licences since 2006). alberta.ca/datacentres/water
  19. Government of Alberta / Sturgeon County / Meta joint news release, July 8, 2026 (Meta’s Sturgeon campus will use a closed-loop, liquid-cooled system with dry cooling and “no operational water use for cooling”; site water limited to domestic uses, fire protection and equipment maintenance). sturgeoncounty.ca
  20. ITK Research, “Data centre operating cost structures: traditional cloud versus AI” (closed-loop chiller cooling adds roughly 20 to 25% to energy use versus evaporative cooling). itkservices3.com

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