The images from this summer’s wildfires are almost dystopian, with scenes of hazy orange skies, communities engulfed in smoke and flames raging on shorelines.
Yet, as Canadians grapple with the consequences of climate change, the federal government is racing to expand one of the world’s most resource-intensive industries: artificial intelligence.
Canada hopes the AI expansion will generate up to $200 billion in additional economic growth and create 250,000 new AI-related jobs over the next five years.
AI data centres are a key part of this expansion. Building Canadian AI infrastructure decreases reliance on foreign suppliers, reducing the risk of future supply chain disruptions and strengthening data sovereignty.
Canada is an attractive location for data centres. Our cold climate reduces the energy required to cool data centres, improving energy efficiency and lowering operating costs.
Further, developers have incentives to build in Ontario. Ontario’s relatively low electricity prices in some regions and comparatively clean electricity grid are additional selling points.
Canada’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy says that “trust is the north star” of this process. For Canadians to trust the expansion of AI, we also need to trust that it will be a net positive addition to our communities and that we won’t be paying for this expansion with environmental costs.
That begins with transparency. To give communities an opportunity to assess the potential impacts of a hyperscale facility, there must be full transparency about its environmental footprint.
Currently, Ontario does not require operators to publicly disclose its energy efficiency, actual electricity consumption, water consumption, cooling technology, carbon emissions or noise assessments.
That information matters because data centres can have a significant environmental footprint. Take water consumption, for example. Data centres require water-dependent cooling systems to operate and indirectly consume water through power generation and chip manufacturing.
In July, Richmond Hill Councillor Carol Davidson said the estimated water demand from data centres across York Region could total about 22 million litres per day. That is a major demand on a resource communities already rely on, and we need to know about these effects beforehand.
To go even further, regulations around data centres should address environmental concerns and protect local communities.
The experience of communities in the U.S. show why these regulatory safeguards matter. In the absence of strict regulations, residents had to face rising electricity costs, an increase in emissions and degrading air quality due to the use of behind-the-meter gas turbines and constant low-frequency noise disrupting quality of life.
Canada can address those problems before they happen here. Communities need to know what they’re signing up for when they say yes to a data centre, and they deserve to have a say in the decision-making process.
Ontario’s playbook has already made progress on the issues of electricity costs and noise. Premier Doug Ford recently said that data centres would pay for all their energy and ensure costs aren’t transferred to ratepayers. For a data centre to be approved, the playbook also requires them to control noise levels.
However, one unaddressed environmental concern is the use of fossil fuels to meet rising electricity demand. Although Ontario’s electricity grid is mostly emissions-free, natural gas plants are used to stabilize the grid as demand increases. More than 6,500 megawatts of data-centre projects are currently seeking connections to Ontario’s grid and will place additional pressure on the electricity system, making Ontario more reliant on natural gas.
Other jurisdictions are already moving to address this problem. Ireland, for example, now requires data centres to meet 80 per cent of their annual electricity demand from additional renewable energy sources.
Ontario should similarly get ahead of the problem by establishing limits on the use of fossil fuels as power sources.
We can also look at ways to build AI infrastructure sustainably.
Other countries have already begun repurposing waste heat generated by data centres. In the Netherlands, waste heat is used in greenhouses and in Sweden, data centres provide heat to residential areas. Canadian companies such as Enwave, Extract Energy and Enersion are also exploring ways to capture and reuse waste heat.
Ontario should encourage this kind of innovation in green technology. Planned with climate action in mind, data centres could drive AI innovation while promoting investment in green technology. But built without proper consideration, they have the potential to exacerbate the climate crisis that is already burning across the country.
Communities cannot be expected to simply accept a data centre in their backyard; they should have a reason to welcome it. Therefore, if the government is going to pursue data centre expansion, it needs to do so in a way that works for our economy, communities and environment.
Transparency from developers, investment in sustainable technology, and enforceable environmental regulations are essential to make data centres a win-win for everyone.
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
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