Massive $10-B AI data centre, energy project planned for Cape Breton
HALIFAX — A company pursuing a wind and hydrogen development in Nova Scotia says it has plans for a $10-billion AI data centre in Cape Breton that it describes as the largest private investment in provincial history.
EverWind Fuels announced Friday that U.S. AI company Anthropic has signed a 20-year lease for a 18,600-square metre data centre in Point Tupper, N.S., that would draw 95 megawatts of electricity during its first phase.
EverWind officials declined to disclose the value of the lease with the company, which says the site will power its Claude AI assistant and growing Canadian demand. Anthropic, led by CEO Dario Amodei, said in a press release that Canada is the sixth-largest user of Claude worldwide.
The data centre is scheduled to come online late next year. A 325-megawatt expansion is expected in mid-2028, which would bring the development’s total energy demand to 420 megawatts, the company said.
“Speed matters, and capable partners matter and this is something that we can do,” Vichie told a news conference in Point Tupper. “We can set an example for the rest of the country on how we can bring this industry to Canada and to protect Canadian sovereignty.”
The plan includes $8 billion to build a data centre campus and $2 billion to advance onshore wind energy projects. The company said the project will create 2,000 construction jobs and 215 permanent positions.
Permanent data centre jobs will pay between $135,000 and $185,000 per year, and the project will create millions of dollars in spinoff benefits, the company said.
Vichie, who is based in New York, launched EverWind about four years ago to build wind and green hydrogen projects in Atlantic Canada. He was previously a senior managing director and co-founder at New York alternative investment firm Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners. Prior to that, he was a senior managing director at alternative investor The Blackstone Group and a managing director at Australia’s Macquarie Bank.
Vichie said EverWind is still pursuing its hydrogen development at Point Tupper. He said the hydrogen and data centre projects will complement each other as both are expected to be powered by Nova Scotia’s abundant renewable wind resources.
Premier Tim Houston said the data centre project was a major vote of confidence in the rural area about 200 kilometres east of Halifax. He said Canada does not have enough secure data infrastructure to meet the requirements of its businesses, governments and health-care institutions.
“This represents the connection between the high-technology possibilities and potential of our province, and the energy generation potential that we have,” said Houston, who is also promoting an ambitious $60-billion offshore wind project called Wind West.
Data centres are typically massive operations that require immense amounts of electricity to run and cool off computer servers. Water from nearby Landrie Lake will be used to cool the Point Tupper data centre’s servers, and the company stressed it will safeguard the water supply.
The firm already has environmental approvals for four wind farms in mainland Nova Scotia with capacity to produce 650 megawatts of power. A consortium of First Nations, led by the Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton, own 51 per cent of those projects.
The company said negotiations are underway with the Membertou Development Corp. to take a nine per cent equity stake in the data centre project. As well, the company says it’s planning extensive public consultations.
EverWind has signed on to the federal government’s responsible data centre principles and says it has agreed to meet provincial conditions as well.
The project is the latest in a string of data centre projects popping up across the country.
Meanwhile, opposition to data centres has been rising in communities across Canada.
In late June, protesters rallied in Vancouver to protest the opening of AI data centres.
Earlier that month, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said no to a massive data centre southeast of Winnipeg, citing the sheer size of the project and its potential threat to the environment.
In August, the Alberta Utilities Commission denied an application to build a 1.4-gigawatt natural gas plant that would have powered a massive data centre complex in the town of Olds, Alta.
The Ontario communities of Oakville and Mississauga recently passed one-year moratoriums on data centre development.
— The Canadian Press