A new data center firm is planning several data center campuses in Alberta, Canada.
Okotoks Online reports Stantec is applying, on behalf of Beacon Data Centres, to redesignate land within the Foothills Crossing Area Structure Plan from an Agriculture District designation to a Business Park District for a planned data center.
The companies held a community open house for the proposals late last month.
The proposed site is along 128 Street E and 498 Avenue E outside High River in Foothills County, to the south of Calgary. Further details aren’t available online, but the development is described as a “large-scale facility."
Little information is available about Beacon, but the company seems to be planning several large-scale sites across Alberta.
The Calgary Herald reports the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) has at least six data center applications in the early stages of development that would use about 3GW of power. Five of those AI hubs have reportedly been submitted by Calgary-based Beacon Data Centres Inc.
An AESO document from April suggests Beacon is planning to construct five AI data hubs that will consume more 1.2GW of power, with three of these projects already in the AESO queue.
Three of the sites are said to be located in the Langdon, High River, and Spruce Grove areas. The former two are located outside Calgary and the latter is to the west of Edmonton.
“It’s early days yet, but Alberta is a very attractive place to invest in the data center business,” said former Alberta energy minister Ken Hughes, a partner in Beacon, told the Herald earlier this year. “It reflects the fact Alberta has a real market for electricity, so when demand is created, generators will respond and create capacity. And you don’t find that anywhere else in Canada — in fact, in very few jurisdictions in North America.”
According to a filing with Rocky View County, Beacon is planning a 400MW, 946-acre data center campus outside Indus (located east of Calgary and close to Langdon) via a CA$4bn (US$2.84bn) investment alongside a solar farm. The company is targeting a December 2026 energization date.
Venture capital firm Nadia Partners lists Beacon and Dromore Energy among its investments.
Joseph Shovlin is listed as Dromore’s CEO on Nadia Partner’s site, and as Beacon’s CEO in Rocky View County documents. Dromore suggests it has 2.5GW of projects planned around Alberta.
In the Rocky View document, Nelson Fonseca, former CEO of Cyxtera and president of Cirion Technologies, is listed as head of transactions. His LinkedIn doesn’t mention Beacon.
Eanna Murphy, founder and former COO of Yondr Americas, is listed as Beacon’s general manager; his LinkedIn likewise is yet to mention the change.
