Details have emerged about another planned data center from Beacon AI Centers, set to be developed outside Calgary, alongside several other projects outside Edmonton.
Chestermere City Council has detailed proposals from Beacon for a data center campus in the Alberta city. The company plans to invest CA$4bn (US$2.78bn) in developing a 400MW campus on 310 acres of greenfield land, located in the southern part of the City of Chestermere.
Chestermere is located some 22km east of downtown Calgary in Rocky View County. Beacon Data Centres is proposing a Land Use Redesignation application for the site, which seeks to change the land use district from Urban Transition (UT) to Business Park/Light Industrial (P/LI) to allow for data center development.
Further details on the development haven’t been shared. Beacon is holding a public meeting on the proposals this week.
“A project this unique in nature will bolster and diversify our local economy,” said Nimish Patel, economic development manager for the City of Chestermere.
Venture capital firm Nadia Partners launched Beacon AI (also known as Beacon Data Centers) at the turn of the year. The company said it was developing 1.8GW of capacity across Alberta, with the first buildings due live in 2027. On its website, Beacon claims to have acquired more than 1,600 acres of land with some 2GW of power in the pipeline.
Previous reports suggest the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) had at least five data center-related applications in its pipeline submitted by Calgary-based Beacon Data Centres as of last year. An AESO document from April 2024 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 at the time.
While the company is yet to officially announce any projects, Beacon is known to be focusing on multiple sites outside the cities of Calgary and Edmonton.
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.
The company is also planning to develop a facility along 128 Street E and 498 Avenue E outside High River in Foothills County, to the south of Calgary. Alberta’s list of major projects suggests that the site will also total 400MW.
According to Alberta’s list of major projects, Beacon is planning a 400MW site known as the Hary Smith Artificial Intelligence Hub between Keephills and Duffield in Parkland County to the west of Edmonton. Another 400MW site is planned east of Edmonton in Strathcona County. Another site, also set to offer 400MW, is planned further south close to Edmonton Airport in Leduc County. Each site will reportedly include hundreds of megawatts of on-site energy generation capacity.
