The Alberta Utilities Commission has denied an application to build a natural gas plant in Olds, Alta., that would have powered a massive data centre complex. Synapse Real Estate Corp. had proposed a 10-building campus with 1.4 gigawatts of power generation — about enough to power the City of Edmonton. Many residents of the largely agricultural community north of Calgary voiced fervent opposition to the project, which would have been located within town limits near homes and businesses. The commission says in its decision that the project would have been too close to the surrounding community and that Synapse failed to justify why it had chosen that location. The Alberta government has been courting big tech companies to set up shop in the province, but is prioritizing projects that provide their own power for their data centres so as not to overburden the grid. The commission is tasked with determining whether the accompanying power infrastructure is in the public interest, but decisions around zoning and land use for data centres fall to municipalities. --- Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2026.
