Proposed $10-Billion EverWind Fuels Data Centre in Nova Scotia Sparks Debate Over Costs and Environment
A proposed $10-billion data centre facility by EverWind Fuels in Point Tupper, Nova Scotia, intended to support Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude, has drawn both criticism over potential environmental and taxpayer costs and support for its projected job creation and green energy plans.
EverWind Fuels has proposed a $10-billion data centre facility in Point Tupper, near Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. The planned operation is designed to support Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude.
The proposal has generated controversy, with critics warning that the facility could cause environmental harm and potentially add new expenses for local citizens. Data centres require significant energy to run hardware and depend on cooling systems that often use water for heat transfer. Increased demands on power grids and water supplies from such facilities can necessitate infrastructure upgrades, the cost of which is usually absorbed by taxpayers.
In response to these concerns, EverWind has promised zero utility rate increases. The company states that the campus will use a closed-loop cooling system containing a water-glycol mixture. According to EverWind, the system will remove heat primarily using air circulation measures, relying on water-assisted cooling only during the hottest weather.
Supporters of the project highlight its potential economic benefits. EverWind estimates that more than 2,000 jobs will be created during the construction period, along with more than 200 permanent positions for the long term. EverWind is a green energy company that is also hoping to expand onshore wind development projects in the region.
For context on the scale of global data centre operations, the biggest data centre in the world—the China Telecom Inner Mongolia Information Park located in Hohhot, China—covers one million square metres.