Canada's Responsible Data Centre Development Principles set five tests for any new facility: lasting local benefits, no shifting of electricity costs, minimal water use, transparency, and strategic value.
VOLTEDGE is designed to meet all five, and to go further on water by drawing no potable water at all. We intend to register as a signatory to the principles. Our strategic value is sovereign compute: public-sector data hosted on Canadian soil, under Canadian law, in a facility built to Protected B and C security standards.
VOLTEDGE uses zero potable water. There is no connection to a municipal water supply and there are no cooling towers, so no water is evaporated. Our patent-pending, non-consumptive cooling method returns what it uses rather than consuming it. The campus is designed for a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.12, against an industry average near 1.45, so far less energy goes to anything other than computing. Electricity will come from contracted renewable sources, and standby generators will run only for testing and emergencies. The site is designed to meet provincial noise guidelines at the nearest residence.
VOLTEDGE will pay its own way. We will fund our own grid connection and serving costs, and pay an industrial rate negotiated with the utility under regulatory oversight. We ask for no rate relief. As a new customer paying its full cost of service, VOLTEDGE spreads the utility's fixed costs over more kilowatt-hours, which puts downward pressure on rates for everyone else. During declared grid emergencies, we will make our on-site standby power available to the utility, taking the campus off the system when the grid needs it most, at no capital cost to ratepayers.
At full build, VOLTEDGE expects to create about 90 permanent skilled positions, paid above the regional average, along with 1,000 to 1,300 job-years in construction. We will build training and research partnerships with local colleges and universities so these careers go to people from the region. Construction and professional-services work will go to local firms wherever possible. We are pursuing an Indigenous equity partnership that includes ownership, a revenue royalty and a board seat. We will also negotiate a community benefits agreement with our host municipality before financial close.
Beyond the taxes it pays, VOLTEDGE will offer preferential sovereign hosting to public bodies in its host province, including government departments, health, education and municipalities. The rate will be set in negotiation with government. That is a direct saving to taxpayers every year the data is hosted. It also brings sensitive public data home, onto Canadian soil and under Canadian law, beyond the reach of foreign legislation such as the United States CLOUD Act.
A data centre draws steady, round-the-clock power. That makes VOLTEDGE a natural partner for renewable energy, able to take wind power that would otherwise be curtailed and strengthening the case for new wind generation. The campus will use existing grid capacity, with no new transmission corridor, and its standby generation will be ready for natural gas. VOLTEDGE will put retired industrial land and an energy-transition community back to work, and our patent-pending method is a Canadian innovation that can grow into a domestic industry.
