DC DataCentreDebate.ca

End-of-life belongs at the start

Cleanup: settle the bill before construction

If Alberta is going to host giant private infrastructure, cleanup security should be posted before the project becomes somebody else’s problem.

Alberta already knows what unfunded cleanup looks like

Big projects get built with confidence. Markets change. Owners sell assets. Companies restructure. Equipment ages. The public is then told the cleanup question is complicated.

This is not saying a data centre is an oil well. It is saying Alberta already knows what happens when long-term cleanup obligations are not secured while the project is still profitable and the owner still wants approval.

Cleanup security is not anti-development. It is the deposit you ask for when the thing being built is too big to abandon politely.

The lesson from orphan wells

Alberta’s oil and gas cleanup problem is the obvious local warning sign. Wells were drilled, companies changed hands, some operators failed, and the cleanup obligation did not always stay matched to the money that was made.

The province’s Site Rehabilitation Program reported $863 million in grants and tens of thousands of sites. The Orphan Well Association and Alberta Energy Regulator exist because abandoned and insolvent-site cleanup is not a theoretical issue here.

The lesson for data centres is simple: do not wait until a project is old, sold, bankrupt, obsolete, or half-stripped before asking who pays to clean it up.

Second life or cleanup

The power plant needs an exit plan too

Bring-your-own-power can be an upside if it causes developers to finance real new generation instead of only adding new load. Alberta could end up with more usable generation capacity than it had before.

That only helps Albertans if the plant is legally, technically, and financially usable after the data centre. If the compute campus shuts down, changes owners, loses its customer, or becomes obsolete, the public record should already say what happens to the attached power plant.

The answer should not be left until the site is quiet and the company has moved on.

Require

  • Require a decommissioning plan before approval.
  • Require financial security up front.
  • Make the obligation survive sale, bankruptcy, restructuring, or cancellation.
  • Update security as the site grows.
  • Include power generation and fuel systems where relevant.
  • Report closure liabilities publicly.

Do not accept

  • Accept “we will clean it up later.”
  • Let the public inherit stranded industrial equipment.
  • Separate the data centre from attached power infrastructure when assigning cleanup responsibility.
  • Assume a big company will always own the site.
  • Wait until the business case fails to discuss remediation.

Minimum condition

No final approval without a filed decommissioning plan, cost estimate, security instrument, update schedule, responsible party, and public reporting. If the project expands, the security expands. If ownership changes, the obligation follows the asset.

Documented Alberta example

Give credit where it is earned

The AUC's June 25, 2026 approval includes binding reclamation-security conditions for the Greenlight power plant. Greenlight submitted a third-party Class 5 demolition and reclamation estimate of approximately CA$30.54 million in 2025 dollars.

Beginning on the fifth anniversary of commercial operation, Greenlight must provide reclamation security using irrevocable standby letters of credit. Updated confirmations are required every five years, and the full updated reclamation amount must be secured by year 20 and maintained until a reclamation certificate is issued.

That is meaningful financial security. The remaining gap is timing and scope: the full amount is not posted before operation, and the public record reviewed here does not show an equivalent secured reclamation package for the Meta data-centre campus.

Sources and notes