Hamilton has been a popular spot for businesses, but now a different type of industry is considering the steel city as its next home: AI data centres.
A Toronto-based company named Slate Asset Management owns 800 acres along Hamilton’s industrial waterfront.
They have ambitious plans for this area, including the Steelport Project, which aims to create a “world-class AI, advanced manufacturing, and clean infrastructure district connecting rail, road, and water in the historic Port of Hamilton,” according to the Steelport website.
“They’re looking to, their words not mine: ‘to create a new manufacturing research campus that gives new life to the former Stelco lands’ that would include public realm,” said Hamilton Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann.
The company has shared some renderings showing what the finished area could look like once construction wraps up.
Ian Borsuk, executive director of Environment Hamilton, mentioned he’s been attending meetings and information sessions about this project.
“It would be mostly used for research purposes is what we’re being told, so universities like Mc Master or elsewhere would be able to use it,” said Executive director of Environment Hamilton Ian Borsuk. “We also know because it’s on the local lands, so Slate is technically Stelco’s landlord in some ways; they would actually be using a lot of the permits that Stelco’s had access to.”
: CPP Investments to provide $225 million in funding for Ontario data center
Borsuk noted he knows about plans for a small data centre, but that only addresses part of the 800 acres that needs work.
“Right now we’re only talking about a very small portion of it and we know that if that first data centre goes through, which is relatively small, there are interests in building out something much bigger that would require significantly more electricity and use up much more water,” said Borsuk.
The potential size and scope of future projects worry Nann as well.
“It’s legitimate grounds for concern; you know water usage – we’ve seen stories coming from the United States about large-scale corporate hyper-scale data centres draining entire water bodies,” said Nann.
For now, Environment Hamilton feels confident whatever gets built here won’t pose as many issues as other larger AI data centers suggested in Utah and Alberta. Still, they have plenty of questions left unanswered.
Slate Asset Management wasn’t available for comment with CHCH News Thursday.
Coun. Nann held an online community information session Thursday evening.
WATCH MORE: How AI impacts small businesses
Source link
Source link
