Disruptors9 Dec 2025

Power to Compute: How Alberta Is Powering the AI Age

Energy planners used to talk about a “trilemma”: reliability, affordability and sustainability.
As AI reshapes the global economy and data centres demand thousands of megawatts of new load, Alberta is adding a fourth leg to the stool — velocity — turning it into an energy quadlema.

At the edge of Wabamun Lake west of Edmonton, the Keephills and Sundance power sites are being reimagined from coal-era workhorses into “AI-ready” power hubs. TransAlta is converting units to natural gas, opening up land for data centres and using existing transmission and cooling infrastructure to shorten the path from project to power.

In this episode of Disruptors: The Canada Project, John Stackhouse speaks with Premier Danielle Smith and John Kousinioris, President & CEO of TransAlta, about how Alberta is experimenting with a new “bring your own power” model for hyperscalers — and how the recent Canada–Alberta energy MOU aims to unlock thousands of megawatts of AI computing capacity.

Alberta is positioning itself as a testing ground for how countries can build domestic compute on their own grids — instead of just exporting raw energy — while navigating an energy quadlema of reliability, affordability, sustainability and speed to power.

CONNECT & SUBSCRIBE:

• Follow RBC Thought Leadership on LinkedIn
• Follow John Stackhouse on LinkedIn
• For more insights visit RBC Thought Leadership

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(243)

Space Race: Getting Canada to Orbit

At SpaceBound in Gatineau, Quebec, across the river from Parliament Hill, John Stackhouse sat down with three people at the centre of Canada's push to reach orbit on its own terms.Dan Goldberg, Presid...

28 Okt 20min

Clear Skies: Direct air capture and Canada's advantage

In the latest episode of Disruptors, host John Stackhouse travels to Innisfail, Alta., a little more than an hour north of Calgary. There he joins Alex Petre, the CEO of Deep Sky, a direct air capture...

21 Okt 18min

Permission to Fail: A case for youth entrepreneurship

Spin Master co-founder Ronnen Harary believes Canada needs more entrepreneurs—especially young ones. In this episode of Disruptors, he joins host John Stackhouse to explain why your 20s offer the perf...

14 Okt 23min

Digital Refineries: Data centres as Alberta’s new resource

Alberta wants $100 billion of AI data centre investment within five years, without subsidies. Recorded live at Energy Disruptors: UNITE in Calgary, Alberta's Minister of Technology and Innovation, Nat...

7 Okt 25min

Canada's Biotech Challenge

Canada has world-class biotech science. Too often, the companies built on it grow up somewhere else. Clarissa Desjardins, co-founder and CEO of Montreal’s Congruence Therapeutics, joins John Stackhous...

29 Sep 26min

Two Middle Powers. One AI Bet

Live from ALL IN 2026 in Montreal, John Stackhouse and Nora Bieberstein sit down with three German business leaders — Yvonne Denz of the Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Robert Jozic ...

23 Sep 19min

Canada's AI Potential

At the Milken Institute's Global Dialogues Toronto, held alongside Prime Minister MarkCarney's Canada Investment Summit, three Canadian leaders took up both questions on onestage. Aidan Gomez co-found...

16 Sep 15min

David, Goliath, and Drones: The New Map of Geo-Technology

As global power dynamics shift, the intersection of technology and national strategy is defining a new Cold War race. In this season opener of Disruptors, host John Stackhouse sits down with economist...

9 Sep 25min