Data centers in Canada are moving to provinces with the 'dirtiest' power because the green ones are locking them out.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
Data Centred: the Shifting Landscape of Canada's Digital Infrastructure
SSRN · 6464099
The Takeaway
While major tech companies often tout their 'green' credentials, 90% of Canada's planned data center capacity is targeting Alberta—a grid with five times the national average emissions. This is driven by an unintended consequence of environmental policy: provinces with clean grids like Quebec and BC have passed laws limiting new large-scale power hookups to protect their own supply, effectively pushing the AI boom toward coal and gas power.
From the abstract
Using proprietary asset-level data tracking data centres across their full lifecycle—from announcement to construction to activation—we provide the first comprehensive mapping of Canada's data centre landscape. Canada's operational base remains modest, but the announced and under-construction pipeline is nearly an order of magnitude larger, driven by a pronounced shift toward hyperscale facilities. This expansion is spatially concentrated and increasingly rural: Alberta accounts for over 90% of