By Sumayya
One of the top locations in the world for computer data warehouses has shared some wise words for Alberta as the province tries to create its own artificial intelligence growth boom.
The bill will come due if they are not asking the right questions right now, says Juli Briskman.
Briskman is a local district supervisor in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is widely known as data centre alley.
It is a region where these computer data warehouses are very numerous and—in some situations—are built right into the everyday life of local citizens, who pass by them on their way to the post office, dining places, health centers, and schools.
Loudoun turned into the main center for this industry’s growth more than 25 years ago and is now gathering some of those financial rewards.
The county reports that its 233 data warehouses brought in 1.2 billion dollars in revenue during the 2026 financial year, which equals 39 percent of the county’s total budget.
They create great revenue, and it is undeniable the amount of money that Loudoun County has been able to enjoy because of the data centre industry, Briskman explained in an interview.
But the scales have tipped to the point where the neighborhood is like, wait a minute, we are seeing too many of these data centres.
The Government of Alberta has advertised data warehouses as a way to make money from the province’s natural gas wealth, turning the fuel beneath our feet into computer processing power—and cash.
Natural gas is going to be foundational to underpinning the growth of data centre development, and we are sitting on an ocean of it, Premier Danielle Smith stated in June.
The province desires to bring in 100 billion dollars in these tech warehouses by the year 2030, and says it looked closely at what went wrong in other areas while creating this plan made in Alberta, which includes demanding that massive centers construct their own power supply.
Premier Smith stated that a new data centre will inject 250 million dollars each year into Alberta’s economy.
A Meta data centre in Alberta is also set to start up its operations ahead of a nearby Greenlight power factory.
For any centers that are planning on hooking up to the regular electricity grid, such as Meta’s project in Sturgeon County, that means they have to construct a natural gas power plant.
Pollution Travels
That demand has brought up worries regarding smoke emissions, with the group named The Pembina Institute calculating that the Meta project by itself could create close to 10 percent of Alberta’s total electricity smoke emissions once its power plant is running.
There are detailed reports on why renewable energy sources are being left out of Alberta’s data centre electricity plans.
There is also a report showing that the Meta data centre could drive up the power bills of regular Albertans.
A recent study from Loudoun County discovered that natural gas and diesel engine smoke emissions from powering just a single data warehouse there could be blamed for more than six early deaths each year, as well as millions of dollars in health-related costs and damages.
It is definitely causing pollution, stated a co-author of the study named Francesca Dominici, who works as a professor at Harvard’s school of public health and whose expertise links air pollution with artificial intelligence. And, as we know, pollution travels.
The study clarifies that long-term contact with tiny particle pollution, even at levels permitted inside the United States, is connected to heart disease, strokes, breathing sickness, asthma, and early death.
Alberta does not demand official Environmental Impact Assessments for data warehouses. The department of Environment and Protected Areas states that their parts, such as power creation and water pipes, are already well understood and controlled by rules.
Dominici stated that data warehouses need environmental checks done by neutral groups that have no financial interest in the projects.
It will be to the companies’ advantage to have a neutral party to say, OK, the negative impact could lead to 5 million dollars in extra health-care costs, but then look, they are giving you 10 million dollars into a new school and things like that, she explained.
Alberta’s officials have stated that safety shields are already working, with the provincial environmental control group having existing legal rules on air cleanliness, noise, and light pollution.
The Alberta premier offered reassurances on the massive Meta data centre during a radio program.
Alberta will, absolutely, have the highest standards for what responsible data centre development looks like, Technology Minister Nate Glubish told reporters at the Alberta legislature building.
Briskman stated that Alberta needs to think about another issue her county is currently dealing with after the fact: what to do when a data warehouse is completely finished and closed down.
When big corporations come in and all they care about is making money, they are not worried about the people. They are not worried about the impacts they leave behind, she expressed.
Your communities need to be demanding that local government have regulations, have zoning policy and decommissioning rules in place … like, yesterday, she added.
Reporters reached out to Glubish’s office for extra details on what plans are set up for closing down old data warehouses, but did not get an answer by the final deadline.
The Government of Alberta set up a special helper project to assist with speeding up data warehouse approvals in the province, and interest across the area has jumped up since then.
The Alberta Electric System Operator reports that demands for electricity for data warehouses has grown from five gigawatts in the year 2024 to more than 20 gigawatts at the finish of 2025.
According to the official Alberta Data Centres map, there were 41 massive electricity connection requests waiting for approval as of the month of July.
