Most factories, auto shops, and assembly plants run on compressed air. This invisible utility powers pneumatic tools, actuates robotic arms, and drives automated systems across virtually every industrial sector. But compressed air carries a hidden problem that engineers have struggled to solve. Fine particles of dust and water molecules suspended in pressurized airstreams develop intense electrical charges when they collide with pipe walls and equipment surfaces at high speeds.
This is the triboelectric effect, the same phenomenon that makes a balloon cling to a wall after you rub it on your hair. In industrial settings, triboelectric charging can generate electric potentials reaching several thousand volts, with serious consequences: sparks that ignite combustible dust, sudden discharges that destroy sensitive electronics, and persistent static buildup that disrupts precision manufacturing.
Most solutions focus purely on mitigation, treating static charges as waste to be eliminated rather than energy to be captured. Previous attempts to harvest electricity from airborne particles required adding extra materials like plastic beads, silica particles, or sand grains with diameters exceeding several hundred micrometers. Some systems sprayed water into the airstream.
These approaches remained confined to laboratory settings or highly specific environments such as desert sandstorms. They produced modest power outputs. And they ignored the core safety concern: high voltages from particulate charging still posed ignition and discharge risks.
A study published in Advanced Energy Materials (“Particulate Static Effect Induced Electricity Generation Inspired by Tesla Turbine”) takes a different approach. Researchers from Chung-Ang University, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], and National Taiwan University developed a device that generates substantial electrical power using only ordinary compressed air. No additional particles, water sprays, or specialized conditions required.
The system draws inspiration from the Tesla turbine, a bladeless rotary design patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. Unlike conventional turbines with angled blades that deflect fluid flow, Tesla’s elegant design uses viscous drag to spin smooth, closely spaced discs. Air clings to the disc surfaces and transfers momentum as it spirals inward.
The new device combines this century-old turbine concept with modern triboelectric materials. It consists of a rotating disc assembly, triboelectric layers made from opposing materials, bearings, and an acrylic housing. Compressed air enters through an inlet and creates a high-speed swirling flow reaching 300 m/s. This airflow spins the rotator through surface friction alone. At 0.2 MPa of pressure, the rotator achieves 8472 revolutions per minute.
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Practical demonstrations confirmed real-world utility. The device illuminated 1000 LEDs arranged in four parallel strings and powered four 2.5 W commercial lamps simultaneously. A commercial thermo-hygrometer operated solely on harvested electricity after the device charged a storage capacitor.
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Compressed air systems already exist in industrial facilities everywhere. This research demonstrates they could serve dual purposes: performing their pneumatic functions while generating useful power and controlling airborne particulates. Rather than grounding away hazardous static charges, that energy could be captured and charged particles neutralized through ion emission. What has long been an industrial nuisance may prove to be a practical resource..
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Particulate Static Effect Induced Electricity Generation Inspired by Tesla Turbine by Seh-Hoon Chung, Dongwon Seo, Chanui Lee, Hyungseok Yong, Sunghan Kim, Zong-Hong Lin, Sangmin Lee, Jihoon Chung. Advanced Energy Materials Volume 16, Issue 9 4 March 2026 e06275 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202506275 First published online: 28 December 2025
Scientists working with China’s fully superconducting Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) have successfully reached a long-theorized “density-free regime” in fusion plasma experiments. In this state, the plasma remains stable even when its density rises far beyond traditional limits. The results, published in Science Advances on January 1, [2026] shed new light on how one of fusion energy’s most stubborn physical barriers might finally be overcome on the road to ignition.
The research was co-led by Prof. Ping Zhu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Associate Prof. Ning Yan of the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. By developing a new high-density operating approach for EAST, the team showed that plasma density can be pushed well past long-standing empirical limits without triggering the disruptive instabilities that usually end experiments. This finding challenges decades of assumptions about how tokamak plasmas behave at high density.
Why Density Limits Have Held Fusion Back
Nuclear fusion is widely seen as a potential source of clean and sustainable energy. In deuterium-tritium fusion, the fuel must be heated to about 13 keV (150 million kelvin) to reach optimal conditions. At such temperatures, the amount of fusion power produced increases with the square of the plasma density. Despite this advantage, tokamak experiments have long been constrained by an upper density limit. When that limit is exceeded, the plasma often becomes unstable, disrupting confinement and threatening the operation of the device. These instabilities have been a major obstacle to improving fusion performance.
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Implications for Fusion Ignition
These experimental results offer new physical insight into how the long-standing density barrier in tokamak operation might be broken in the pursuit of fusion ignition.
“The findings suggest a practical and scalable pathway for extending density limits in tokamaks and next-generation burning plasma fusion devices,” said Prof. Zhu.
Associate Prof. Yan added that the team plans to apply the same approach during high-confinement operation on EAST in the near future, with the goal of reaching the density-free regime under high-performance plasma conditions.
This research was conducted collaboratively by the Institute of Plasma Physics at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Aix-Marseille University in France, among other institutions. …
A tokamak is a toroidal device that employs magnetic confinement to achieve controlled nuclear fusion. It resembles a helical “magnetic racetrack,” effectively confining high-temperature plasma to promote fusion reactions. Plasma density, a crucial parameter affecting tokamak performance, directly impacts the rate of fusion reactions.
Historically, researchers have acknowledged that plasma density has an upper limit. When this limit is reached, the plasma becomes unstable, escapes magnetic confinement, and releases substantial energy onto the device’s inner walls, thereby jeopardizing operational safety.
While long-term international fusion research has indicated that the physical processes triggering the density limit occur at the plasma-wall boundary region, the underlying mechanisms have remained unclear.
In this study, the Chinese research team developed a self-organized plasma-wall interaction theoretical model. Through this model, they identified the critical role of radiation instability induced by boundary impurities in triggering the density limit, thereby elucidating the underlying mechanism.
Building on this theoretical insight, researchers experimentally controlled the plasma to exceed the density limit and successfully guided it into a new “density-free zone.”
These results mark the first experimental confirmation of such a zone in tokamaks. This innovative work not only provides key insights into understanding the density limit but also establishes an important physical basis for high-density operation in tokamaks, according to the scientists. (Xinhua)
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Accessing the density-free regime with ECRH-assisted ohmic start-up on EAST by Jiaxing Liu, Ping Zhu, Dominique Franck Escande, Wenbin Liu, Shiwei Xue, Xin Lin, Panjun Tang, Liang Wang, Ning Yan, Jinju Yang, Yanmin Duan, Kai Jia, Zhenwei Wu, Yunxin Cheng, Ling Zhang, Jinping Qian, Rui Ding, Ruijie Zhou, and the EAST team. Science Advances 1 Jan 2026 Vol 12, Issue 1 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adz3040
This paper appears to be open access.
Cassian Holt’s January 9, 2026 article for Morning Overview (h/t MSN) features a very good overview of fusion technology, the breakthrough, and the race to develop the technology, Note: Links have been removed,
China’s latest advance in magnetic confinement fusion has pushed a key performance limit past what theory once allowed, turning its so‑called “artificial sun” into a test bed for conditions that previously belonged only in computer models and stellar cores. By sustaining a plasma that is both hotter and denser than expected, researchers have effectively doubled the potential energy yield of future reactors and forced a rewrite of long‑standing assumptions about how fusion plasmas behave. The result is not commercial power, but it is a decisive step toward a machine that could one day deliver continuous, carbon‑free electricity at planetary scale.
At the center of this leap is the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, or EAST, a doughnut‑shaped device that uses powerful magnets to corral hydrogen isotopes into a seething, electrically charged fluid. For years, EAST has been a workhorse for China’s fusion program, setting records for how long it can hold ultra‑hot plasma without losing control. Now, by breaching a density ceiling that many physicists treated as a hard stop, the machine has shown that the path to practical fusion energy may be more flexible, and potentially shorter, than the textbooks suggested.
Breaking a fusion limit that textbooks treated as law
The core of the new achievement is deceptively simple to state: scientists in China have operated a tokamak plasma at a density that earlier theory said should be impossible to sustain without catastrophic instability. In magnetic fusion, density is as important as temperature, because the rate of fusion reactions scales with how many particles can collide inside a given volume. By pushing that density higher while keeping the plasma under control, the team has effectively demonstrated a way to extract roughly twice the potential energy from the same reactor footprint, a leap that recent analysis describes as doubling the prospective output of future machines.
Researchers using China’s device report that this record setting plasma density was not a fleeting spike but a stable, high performance state that held long enough to be scientifically useful. That matters because the previous density limit, often treated as a hard boundary, was built into the design assumptions of many proposed reactors. The new result shows that this ceiling can be raised, and that the “Chinese Fusion Reactor Achieves Plasma Density Previously Thought to Be Impossible” is not just a headline but a shift in what engineers can now plan for in next generation designs, with the higher density regime directly tied to more promising Science & Energy Energy Renewable performance targets.
Inside China’s “artificial sun” and its long climb to this point
The machine behind the breakthrough is the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, a facility in Hefei that has become a flagship for China’s fusion ambitions. EAST is designed around superconducting magnets that can operate continuously, rather than in short pulses, which allows it to chase the holy grail of steady state fusion instead of brief experimental bursts. Earlier work with this device already set a benchmark when China’s “artificial sun” held a superheated plasma for 1,066 seconds, a milestone that showed the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak could maintain extreme conditions for nearly eighteen minutes without losing stability.
That earlier 1,066 second run was not just a record, it was a proof of concept that long duration operation is compatible with the delicate balance of heating, fueling, and magnetic control that a reactor will eventually need. Reports on how China’s quest to harness the power of the stars reached that historic plasma duration underline that the same hardware and control systems are now being pushed into even more demanding regimes of density and pressure. In that sense, the new density record builds directly on the earlier Experimental Advanced Superconduct milestone, turning a machine known for long pulses into one that can also probe the edge of what plasma physics allows.
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Why scientists once thought this regime was out of reach
The idea that a tokamak plasma could not exceed a certain density was not arbitrary. It grew out of decades of experiments in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Russia, where attempts to pack more particles into the magnetic bottle often ended in sudden collapses known as disruptions. These events can dump the plasma’s energy into the reactor walls in milliseconds, damaging components and ending the experiment. Over time, researchers distilled these experiences into empirical scaling laws that linked density to the strength of the magnetic field and the size of the device, and those laws hardened into design rules that discouraged aggressive pushes into higher density territory.
China’s new result matters because it shows that those empirical limits were not fundamental, but contingent on how the plasma was shaped, heated, and controlled. …
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From record shots to a roadmap for practical reactors
Record breaking experiments are valuable, but fusion will only matter for the grid if those conditions can be turned into a repeatable operating regime that a power plant can live in for years. On that front, the density breakthrough is being framed not as an isolated world record but as a stepping stone toward reactors that can run at high power continuously. Researchers using China’s device emphasize that the new regime was achieved in a way that is compatible with the engineering constraints of future plants, including the need to protect internal components and manage heat loads without exotic materials.
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China’s broader fusion strategy and the race for clean power
The density milestone does not exist in isolation. It is part of a broader national strategy in which China has invested heavily in fusion research as a pillar of its long term energy and technology plans. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak in Hefei is one centerpiece of that effort, but it sits alongside participation in international projects and a growing domestic ecosystem of universities and institutes focused on plasma physics. The goal is not only scientific prestige but a practical path to reactors that can complement, and eventually replace, fossil fuel plants in a country that still relies heavily on coal.
Earlier work with EAST showed how seriously China takes this goal. Reports on nuclear fusion plasma failures predicted with 94 percent accuracy describe how Chinese scientists used advanced modeling and machine learning to anticipate and avoid disruptions in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, a capability that is essential if future reactors are to operate safely. Those same accounts point to expectations that commercial production of fusion power could be possible by 2050, a timeline that aligns with China’s broader climate and energy commitments. In that context, the new density record is both a scientific achievement and a political signal that the country intends to be at the front of the pack as fusion moves from laboratory to grid, with EAST and related work at Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak forming the backbone of that push.
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Global implications and the next questions for fusion research
China’s density breakthrough will ripple far beyond Hefei, because it directly affects how other countries think about their own fusion projects. Facilities like ITER [International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor] in France, as well as smaller private ventures in the United States and Europe, have all been designed around assumptions about what densities and pressures are realistically achievable in a tokamak. If those assumptions are now too conservative, it could open the door to more compact designs, revised operating scenarios, or even new business models for fusion startups that have bet on alternative approaches.
At the same time, the result raises fresh questions that only further experiments can answer. One detailed account of China’s “artificial sun” notes that the device has just pulled off something fusion scientists have been chasing for decades, and that it could change the trajectory of progress toward practical fusion energy. Yet the same reporting makes clear that the path from a single machine’s record to a global fleet of reactors is long, and that issues like materials resilience, tritium supply, and regulatory frameworks remain unresolved. The density record is therefore best seen as a pivot point, one that will shape how researchers worldwide prioritize their next steps as they weigh whether to follow China’s lead into this new regime, as highlighted in analysis of how China’s “artificial sun” just pulled fusion into uncharted territory.
The climate stakes if fusion’s promise holds
Behind the technical details lies a simple motivation: the world needs vast amounts of clean, reliable power if it is to phase out fossil fuels without sacrificing economic growth. Fusion, if it can be made to work at scale, offers an alluring package of attributes. It produces no carbon dioxide at the point of generation, carries no risk of runaway chain reactions, and generates far less long lived radioactive waste than conventional fission. The fuel, derived from isotopes of hydrogen, is abundant, and the reaction itself shuts down if the delicate balance of conditions is disturbed, which makes it inherently safe in ways that coal and gas plants are not.
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If you have the time and the interest, Holt’s January 9, 2026 article is well worth reading.
As for Morning View, there’s this from their About page,
Welcome to Morning Overview, your go-to source for the latest in tech, gadgets, science, and transportation. We’re here to provide you with the essential updates and insightful articles to help you start your day informed and inspired.
At Morning Overview, we understand that the world of technology and innovation moves fast. Our mission is to bring you the most relevant and exciting developments, from cutting-edge gadgets to breakthroughs in science and transportation. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a gadget lover, or simply curious about the future of mobility, we’ve got you covered.
Our team is a group of passionate writers, researchers, and experts who keep their fingers on the pulse of all things innovative. We curate content that’s both engaging and easy to digest, ensuring that you stay ahead of the curve without feeling overwhelmed.
Every morning, we deliver a quick overview of the biggest stories, trends, and insights that are shaping the future of our world. Our goal is to help you navigate the fast-paced landscape of technology, so you can make informed decisions, explore new possibilities, and stay connected to the ever-evolving digital age.
Thank you for visiting Morning Overview—we’re excited to be a part of your daily routine!
I wouldn’t have minded a little more detail such as: when was this publication founded, what principles guide the work, and how is it being funded?
A November 13, 2025 news item on Nanowerk announces work that could cut energy costs while removing airborne carbon dioxide, Note: Links have been removed,
A nanofiber air filter developed by the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) could turn existing building ventilation into carbon-capture devices while cutting homeowners’ energy costs.
In a paper published in Science Advances (“Distributed direct air capture by carbon nanofiber air filters”), researchers from the lab of UChicago PME Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu developed a distributed carbon nanofiber direct air capture (DAC) filter that could potentially turn every home, office, school or other building into a small carbon-capture system working toward the global problem of airborne CO2.
A life-cycle analysis shows that – even after factoring extra CO2 released by everything from manufacture and transportation to maintenance and disposal – the new filter is 92.1% efficient in removing carbon dioxide from the air.
“Every building already has ventilation systems that move large volumes of air every day. By integrating our carbon-capture filters into these systems, we can remove carbon directly from the air without building new plants or using extra land,” said first author Ronghui Wu, an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University who was a postdoctoral researcher in Hsu’s lab at the time of the research. “It’s a practical and scalable way to make carbon capture part of everyday infrastructure.”
On the largest possible level, replacing every building air filter with this new model could remove up to 596 megatonnes of carbon dioxide from the air – the equivalent of taking 130 million cars off the road for a year.
But on the individual level, every home, office or school that switch to DAC filters should expect lower energy bills. One study from 2024 indicated those savings could be up to 21.66%.
“Normally, air-conditioning systems need to pull in a lot of outside air to keep indoor carbon dioxide levels low,” Wu said. “Our filter removes carbon dioxide inside the building, so the system doesn’t have to bring in as much outside air. That means less air needs to be heated or cooled, which reduces the energy consumptions in HVAC.”
Regenerated by sunlight
Current direct air capture technologies are massive, corporate-owned affairs requiring major investments in land, power and other resources. Hsu likens it to solar power – a technology once confined to utility-owned solar farms, but now a network of large farms and small rooftop panels working toward the same energy goal.
“These rooftop panels are possible because sunlight is more or less uniform. The CO2 from air is similar,” Hsu said. “We propose, using experiment and computation to demonstrate, that indeed we could retrofit our buildings to be part of the decarbonization effort.”
Creating a practical, real-world filter is a balancing act. The UChicago PME team had to ensure that the filter removes more CO2 from the air than the amount added by manufacturing, transporting, installing, maintaining and eventually disposing of the filters.
The team’s carbon nanofiber–based polyethylenimine (PEI) material would create a reusable filter that could slot into existing HVAC systems, similar to the air-purifying high efficiency particulate arresting (HEPA) filters. Unlike HEPA filters, which head to landfills as garbage every six months to a year, the carbon-capture filters would have the CO2 removed regularly and be returned to service.
Hsu and Wu envision an ecosystem where municipal waste management systems haul off the filters weekly with the garbage and recycling.
“They would have these saturated filters from household ventilation systems and commercial buildings, then replace them with new ones,” Hsu said. “They’d ship the saturated one to a centralized facility to dissolve the CO2 or make it into highly concentrated CO2 to capture or, even better, convert to high-value chemicals or fuel.”
The new material was specifically designed to show excellent solar absorptivity. This means the CO2 can be removed from a saturated filter through solar thermal methods – including literally leaving the filter out under the sun.
“It has to be able to regenerate using renewable energy,” Hsu said. “The most common way to regenerate CO2 with solvent, is by heating it up. If you burn fossil fuels to heat up the solvent, then you will probably end up emitting more carbon dioxide than you capture.”
While the global benefits would rise as more places adopt the filter, lower energy bills aren’t the only benefits an individual would see from installing a direct air capture filter.
“This kind of air filter can also improve indoor air quality, especially in places like classrooms and offices where many people share the same space,” Wu said. “By keeping indoor carbon dioxide levels low, it helps people stay more alert, focused, and healthy.”
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
Distributed direct air capture by carbon nanofiber air filters by Ronghui Wu, Hernan E. Delgado, Yi Xie, Yuanke Chen, Gangbin Yan, Edward Luo, Qizhang Li, Qingsong Fan, Yu Han, Genesis M. Higueros, Amar Ruthen, Chenxi Sui, Adarsh Suresh, David B. Mitzi, Chong Liu, Amgad Elgowainy, and Po-Chun Hsu. Science Advances 17 Oct 2025 Vol 11, Issue 42 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv6846
A November 5, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announced memristors that more closely resemble biological neurons,
USC [University of Southern California] researchers built artificial neurons that replicate real brain processes using ion-based diffusive memristors. These devices emulate how neurons use chemicals to transmit and process signals, offering massive energy and size advantages. The technology may enable brain-like, hardware-based learning systems. It could transform AI into something closer to natural intelligence.
Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and School of Advanced Computing have developed artificial neurons that replicate the complex electrochemical behavior of biological brain cells. The innovation, documented in Nature Electronics, is a leap forward in neuromorphic computing technology. The innovation will allow for reduction in the chip size by orders of magnitude, reduce its energy consumption by orders of magnitude and could advance artificial general intelligence.
Unlike conventional digital processors or existing neuromorphic chips based on silicon technology that merely simulate neural activity, these artificial neurons physically embody or emulate the analog dynamics of their biological counterparts. Just as neurochemicals initiate brain activity, chemicals can be used to initiate computation in neuromorphic, or-brain-inspired hardware devices. By being a physical replication of the biological process, they differ from prior iterations of artificial neurons that were solely mathematical equations.
The work, led by USC Computer and Electrical Engineering Professor Joshua Yang, who also led the work in a seminal paper on artificial synapses over a decade ago, introduces a new type of artificial neuron based on the so-called “diffusive memristor”. The Nature Electronics paper explores how such artificial neurons can enable a new class of chips that complement and augment today’s silicon-based technologies, which power nearly all modern electronics and rely on the movement of electrons for computation. Instead, the diffusive device introduced by Yang and colleagues to build the neurons would rely on movement of atoms. Such neurons can enable newer chips that would operate more similarly to how our brain works, would be more energy efficient and could lend themselves to usher in what’s known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
How it works: In the biological process, the brain uses both electrical and chemical signals to drive action in the body. Neurons or nerve cells start out with electrical signals that when they reach the space or gap at the end of the neuron called the synapse, the electrical signals are converted into chemical signals into order to pass on and process the information. Once the information crosses to the next neuron, some of those signals are once again converted to electrical signals through the body of the neuron. This is the physical process that Yang and colleagues have succeeded in emulating with high fidelity in several critical aspects. The big advantage: their diffusive memristor-based artificial neuron requires only the space of a single transistor, rather than the tens to hundreds used in conventional designs.
In particular, in the biological model, ions or charged particles help generate the electrical signals to cause action within the neuron. In the human brain, such processes rely on chemicals (e.g., ions) like potassium, sodium, or calcium to force this action.
In the current paper, Yang, who is Director of the Center of Excellence on Neuromorphic Computing at USC, uses silver ions in oxide to generate the electrical pulse and emulate the processes to perform computing for activities such as movement, learning, and planning.
“Even though it’s not exactly the same ions in our artificial synapses and neurons, the physics governing the ion motion and the dynamics are very similar,” says Yang.
Yang explains, “Silver is easy to diffuse and gives us the dynamics we need to emulate the biosystem so that we can achieve the function of the neurons, with a very simple structure.” The new device that can enable a brain-like chip is called the “diffusive memristor” because of the ion motion and the dynamic diffusion that occurs with the use of silver.
He adds, the team chose to utilize ion dynamics for building artificial intelligent systems “because that is what happens in the human brain, for a good reason and since the human brain, is the ‘winner in evolution–the most efficient intelligent engine.”
“It’s more efficient,” says Yang.
This is critical, explains Yang, “It’s not that our chips or computers are not powerful enough for whatever they are doing. It’s that they aren’t efficient enough. They use too much energy.” This is particularly relevant given the level of energy needed to run large software models with a huge amount of data like machine learning for artificial intelligence.
Yang goes on to explain that unlike the brain, “Our existing computing systems were never intended to process massive amounts of data or to learn from just a few examples on their own. One way to boost both energy and learning efficiency is to build artificial systems that operate according to principles observed in the brain.”
If you are looking for pure speed, electrons that run modern computing would be the best for fast operations. But, he explains, “Ions are a better medium than electrons for embodying principles of the brain. Because electrons are lightweight and volatile, computing with them enables software-based learning rather than hardware-based learning, which is fundamentally different from how the brain operates.”
In contrast, he says, “The brain learns by moving ions across membranes, achieving energy-efficient and adaptive learning directly in hardware, or more precisely, in what people may call ‘wetware’.”
For example, a young child can learn to recognize handwritten digits after seeing only a few examples of each, whereas a computer typically needs thousands to achieve the same task. Yet, the human brain accomplishes this remarkable learning while consuming only about 20 watts of power, compared to the megawatts required by today’s supercomputers.
Potential Impact: This new method is one step closer to mimicking natural intelligence.
Yang noted that silver used in the experiment is not readily compatible with conventional semiconductor manufacturing, and that alternative ionic species will need to be investigated for similar functionalities.
The efficiency of these diffusive memristors include not only the energy, but size. Normally one smart phone has about 10 chips but billions of transistors or switches that control the on/off or 0’s and 1’s that underpin computation.
“Instead [with this innovation], we just use a footprint of one transistor for each neuron. We are designing the building blocks that eventually led us to reduce the chip size by orders of magnitude, reduce the energy consumption by orders of magnitude, so it can be sustainable to perform AI in the future, with similar level of intelligence without burning energy that we cannot sustain,” says Yang.
Now that we have demonstrated capable and compact building blocks, artificial synapses and neurons, the next step is to integrate large numbers of them and test how closely we can replicate the brain’s efficiency and capabilities. “Even more exciting,” says Yang, “is the prospect that such brain-faithful systems could help us uncover new insights into how the brain itself works.”
Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
A spiking artificial neuron based on one diffusive memristor, one transistor and one resistor by Ruoyu Zhao, Tong Wang, Taehwan Moon, Yichun Xu, Jian Zhao, Piyush Sud, Seung Ju Kim, Han-Ting Liao, Ye Zhuo, Rivu Midya, Shiva Asapu, Dawei Gao, Zixuan Rong, Qinru Qiu, Cynthia Bowers, Krishnamurthy Mahalingam, S. Ganguli, A. K. Roy, Qing Wu, Jin-Woo Han, R. Stanley Williams, Yong Chen & J. Joshua Yang. Nature Electronics volume 8, pages 1211–1221 (2025) Published: 27 October 2025 Version of record: 27 October 2025 Issue date: December 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01488-x
This is not exhaustive but here’s a list from a June 11, 2026 Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) announcement (received via email) of upcoming events and more (i.e., a call for editorials),
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CSPC Presents: National Conversation on Canada’s AI Strategy
Call for Editorials: Canada’s New AI Strategy — AI for All
The launch of the federal government’s renewed National AI Strategy, AI for All, signals a bold ambition to position Canada as a global leader in artificial intelligence at a time of profound technological, economic, and geopolitical change. Built around six strategic pillars, the multi-billion-dollar initiative aims to strengthen and safeguard the impact of AI in all aspects of Canadians.
CSPC invites editorials in English and French that explore the opportunities, challenges, and implications of Canada’s new AI Strategy. We welcome thoughtful analyses of the strategy’s six pillars and their potential impact on industry, government, academia, and civil society.
June 17 [2026]: Research Integrity in the Era of AI
Join us on June 17 [2026] from 11:00–12:30 PM EST for a panel that will explore whether AI can meaningfully strengthen research integrity or whether it accelerates existing vulnerabilities in the publishing system, and what this means for funders, institutions, and policymakers who rely on scholarly evidence. Panelists will explore how openness, governance, accountability, and policy frameworks must evolve to sustain trust in an AI-mediated research ecosystem.
June 22 [2026]: AI for All? BalancingInnovation, Sovereignty, and Trust
Join us on June 22, 2026, from 12:00–1:30 PM EST for a timely virtual panel, “AI for All? Balancing Innovation, Sovereignty, and Trust,” examining the implications of Canada’s newly launched National AI Strategy. As Canada embarks on an ambitious roadmap to strengthen AI infrastructure, accelerate adoption, and grow domestic innovation champions, important questions remain about implementation, accountability, safety, and public trust. Bringing together leaders from government, industry, academia, and civil society, this 90-minute discussion will explore how Canada can balance economic competitiveness and technological sovereignty with the need for robust safeguards, liability frameworks, and democratic values. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear diverse perspectives on one of Canada’s most important policy initiatives of the decade.
July 6 [2026]: Clean Power, Smart Sovereignty: Driving Canada’s competitive AI and quantum future
Join us on July 6 [2026] from 1:00–2:30 PM EST for a panel exploring a pivotal question for Canada: How can we lead in AI while sustainably powering the infrastructure that supports it? This panel will examine strategies for building sovereign, next-generation computing systems that leverage Canada’s clean energy advantage. Panellists will discuss how Canada can unlock competitiveness at the intersection of sovereignty, sustainability, and security, while ensuring that AI technologies scale without compromising the country’s leadership in responsible innovation.
July 21 [2026]: Canada’s AI Advantage: Why ItExists—and What It Will Take to Scale It
Join us on July 21, 2026 from 1:30–3:00 PM EST for an insightful virtual panel exploring how Canada can turn its world-class AI research and talent into meaningful economic and societal impact. Canada has earned a global reputation in artificial intelligence, but significant challenges remain in translating research excellence into widespread adoption and commercialization. Bringing together leaders from academia, national AI institutes, and industry, this discussion will examine how to better connect talent, research, and industry, accelerate AI adoption, strengthen innovation pipelines, and scale Canada’s impact in the global AI economy.
From a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news online with files from Troy Charles, Shaurya Kshatri, and Rosanna Tiranti, this May 23, 2026 news item provides coverage of the event, Note: A link has been removed,
Hundreds of people marched through Vancouver on Saturday [May 23, 2026] to protest two planned AI data centres in the city, raising concerns about the amount of water and energy such facilities can use as the region faces tighter water restrictions.
The demonstration began at Waterfront Station, where protesters gathered before marching toward Granville Island as they chanted against artificial intelligence and carried signs opposing the construction of new data centres in Vancouver.
Torin LaRocque, who organized the protest, said he wants the city and federal government to stop the projects.
“We should just not have any data centres in Canada, period,” he said. “Instead of focusing on these giant corporations, our government should be focusing on its citizens,” LaRocque said.
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Regardless of what you think of LaRocque’s position “We should just not have any data centres in Canada, period …”, he has a point, “Instead of focusing on these giant corporations, our government should be focusing on its citizens …”.
The CBC news online May 23, 2026 news item gives a brief description of the two Telus (telecommunications company) AI data centres planned for Vancouver and then proceeds to the crux of the matter where the protestors are concerned,
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The first Vancouver project, located at the former Hootsuite headquarters in Mount Pleasant, will come online later this year. A second facility at 150 West Georgia Street is planned for 2029.
The project has the backing of the B.C. government, which rolled out its own AI data centre power policy in January [2026].
The City of Vancouver is also throwing its support behind the proposal, with Mayor Ken Sim calling the data centres “world-class facilities.”
But protesters say the public has not been given enough information about the environmental impacts and raised concerns over rising electricity demand and massive water consumption linked to AI data centres.
“Why should we be using so much water for these AI data centres rather than using that water to help our people,” [emphasis mine] said LaRocque.
The protest comes as Metro Vancouver remains under Stage 2 water restrictions, which bans lawn watering, and prepares for the likely move to Stage 3 restrictions sometime in June [2026]..[emphases mine]
Linda Parkinson, director of water services at Metro Vancouver, said there is no regional policy specifically for data centres.
She said a facility of that size would be treated like any other large water user.
“Both the city and Metro would have concerns and questions about a large water user coming in,” Parkinson said.
She said the key question would be whether the facility recycles water and avoids drawing heavily from the region’s water system.
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Telus has claimed that at least one of these AI data centres is ‘green ‘ according to the CBC news online May 23, 2026 news item, Note: A link has been removed,
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According to the company [Telus], the facilities will run on 98 per cent clean hydro power and recycle enough waste energy to heat 150,000 homes. It says the projects will also use 90 per cent less water than a traditional data centre, and that it is working on plans to incorporate recycled water from B.C. Place stadium.
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Concerns about data centre power and water use have become a flashpoint in communities across North America as tech companies seek to expand their operations to keep up with AI’s growing power need.
One 2023 study estimated that generating between 10 and 50 medium-sized responses with AI chatbot ChatGPT used half a litre of water, while a separate study by the International Energy Agency, estimated data centres used 140 billion litres of water globally just for cooling in 2023.
The title of Isaac Phan Nay’s May 25 2026 article “Got Questions About AI Data Centres in Vancouver? Here Are Answers” for The Tyee is a little misleading. He also provides some detailed information I haven’t seen elsewhere, e.g., what the various levels of government are doing with regard to AI data centres, Note: Links have been removed,
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On May 11 [2026], federal Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon joined Telus CEO Darren Entwistle to announce the expansion of AI data centres in downtown Vancouver and Kamloops.
The company plans to expand its existing data centre in Kamloops and open two new AI data centres in Vancouver: one at 150 W. Georgia St., near BC Place stadium in downtown Vancouver, and another at 111 E. 5th Ave. in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood — formerly the headquarters of technology company Hootsuite. The telecom company is calling the cluster an “AI factory.”
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The boom also comes while BC Hydro expects the province will need up to an additional 9,700 gigawatt hours of additional electricity each year by 2035 — nearly double the current output of the Site C dam.
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The Tyee reached out to Telus, the City of Vancouver, BC Hydro, the federal government and project proponents for more information about how the three new government-backed data centres will affect residents in Vancouver and Kamloops.
The developer of the new projects, Westbank, did not respond to The Tyee’s requests for comment.
Why is the government helping to build AI data centres?
The Telus data centres are the first announced for consideration through the federal government’s new program to invest in AI infrastructure.
Artificial Intelligence Minister [Evan] Solomon’s office said in an email that the federal government is entering discussions with Telus because the company’s projects may help advance Canada’s need for AI infrastructure to be built in Canada.
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Despite announcing Telus’s data centre expansion, the federal government has not yet agreed on any terms or amounts to fund, finance or invest in the project. Instead, it is entering discussions with Telus and the proponents of about 160 other projects before considering support for any centres.
Solomon’s office added it’s assessing projects based on whether they can strengthen Canadian sovereignty, provide enough AI compute capability, support Canadian companies and researchers, create economic and ecosystem benefits, include Indigenous participation, demonstrate a credible energy plan, move forward on a realistic timeline and provide value for Canada.
“This is not just about who can build the biggest data centre,” Solomon’s office said. “Any potential federal support would need to be tied to clear public value.”
Ottawa [i.e., the federal government] is spending big on building out AI infrastructure. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada previously told The Tyee the department has committed $925.6 million to support large-scale, sovereign AI infrastructure, which includes data centres.
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Phan Nay’s May 25 2026 article “Got Questions About AI Data Centres in Vancouver? Here Are Answers” is a good read for anyone interested in how various interests are affecting the placement of AI data centres in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia and Canada.
Meanwhile, Telus responds to the protest, from a May 25, 2026 article by Daniel Chai for the Daily Hive, which also makes mention of a future protest being planned, Note: Links have been removed,
A massive protest march against the proposed cluster of AI data centres in Vancouver over the weekend has prompted a response from Telus, one of the companies behind the project.
The Canadian telecommunications giant contacted Daily Hive just hours after the demonstration throughout the streets of Vancouver drew hundreds of people.
The group behind the protest march, No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, is also planning a second march during the last weekend of June.
Telus announced earlier in May that it was moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia.
This includes new AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver that could become fully operational before the end of this decade.
“We view our investment in Canada’s sovereign AI backbone as a critical national asset – for Canadians, by Canadians – estimated to inject $9 billion into the Canadian economy and safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive data,” a Telus representative told Daily Hive.
“We have applied our core sustainability principles to our AI Factories, because we believe Canada should lead the AI revolution without compromising on its climate leadership. Designed to be the world’s most sustainable sovereign AI data centres, our Vancouver facilities will set a new global standard for sustainable AI infrastructure.”
Torin LaRocque, an initiator of No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, previously shared that one of the top negative issues surrounding the proposed facilities is their impact on the environment.
“Telus states that the new AI Data Centres use 90 per cent less energy than the average centre,” said the Vancouver resident. “However, they also state that they will have more than 60,000 GPUs on the conservative side.
“[If] each GPU will process an AI prompt a day, that is still over 1,400 litres of water being used a day. Vancouver is already under Stage 2 water restrictions. Why should we let these data centres use the water that Vancouver’s population needs?”
Telus responded by saying that its AI Data Centres will be powered by 98 per cent renewable energy from BC Hydro using a closed-loop liquid cooling system.
The telecommunications company added that it will be 80 per cent more energy-efficient than a traditional data centre and consumes 90 per cent less water, equal to an estimated 300 million litres saved each year.
“Rather than expelling waste heat into the atmosphere, our facilities are engineered to capture it and feed it directly into Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility in Mount Pleasant and Creative Energy’s downtown district energy system, heating the equivalent of 150,000 homes in Metro Vancouver, effectively using every electron twice, to produce environmentally responsible Sovereign AI infrastructure,” explained Telus.
The No AI Data Centres in Vancouver protest march drew an estimated 750 people on Saturday, May 23 [2026] , in Downtown Vancouver. [emphasis mine]
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According to BC Hydro, the utility and the Province are taking a “managed and phased approach to serving these large new loads to protect affordability and reliability for residential customers.”
No AI Data Centres in Vancouver is planning to hold a second protest march on Saturday, June 27, [2026] at 1 p.m.
The demonstration will begin at Waterfront Station, head to 150 W. Georgia St. — which is a proposed site for an AI Data Centre — and continue across the Cambie Bridge before concluding at Vancouver City Hall.
Reusing waste heat generated by the GPUs and consuming 90% less water both sound good. Of course, Telus hasn’t offered any information about how much water will be consumed in the first place even if they are using 90% less. As researchers find ways to make more energy efficient hardware, AI use proliferates (e.g. one AI agent today and tomorrow you could be like Vancouver’s mayor Ken Sim who uses 11 AI agents).
It’s nice to know that the waste heat generated by the GPUs could be used for heating homes but “effectively using every electron twice,” doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me. Aren’t all electrons used more than once? If someone out there cares to explain, please do leave a comment.
There are other issues such as noise and housing although the energy and water issues are predominating the discussion at the moment.
As for the second protest planned for June 27, 2026, that’s during the 2026 FIFA World Cup period where much of downtown Vancouver is considered part of a zone where transit and movement is somewhat restricted. That could lead to some interesting places.
Featured in my May 8, 2026 posting, the 2026 Web Summit has provided an unexpected bonanza of fodder for local gossip about technology (AI data centres), local real estate problems, a glimpse into federal/provincial/municipal politics, and the Mayor.
AI data centres in Vancouver
One more AI data centre is being planned for Vancouver but first a little history. There was an AI data centre announcement in January 2026, from my February 6, 2026 posting, Note: My February 6 posting was a deepish dive into energy and water vis-à-vis data centres, which included some local nnews,
… as data centres become more important in their real estate markets as this January 31, 2026 article by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive could be said to hint at, Note: Links have been removed,
One of downtown Vancouver’s largest office development projects, first planned during the pre-pandemic office market boom, will not proceed as originally approved [emphasis mine], given the prevailing weak office market conditions.
Westbank’s major downtown Vancouver office tower project at steam plant site pivots to hotel, residential, and data centre uses
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Westbank, a real estate developer, also features in the latest announcement about two more AI data centres (a second one at another Westbank property in Vancouver and a third in Kamloops at an unnamed property), from a May 11, 2026 article by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive, Note 1: NVDIA “is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California” according to its Wikipedia entry; Note 2: A link has been removed from the following excerpt,.
Telus to build massive AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver
Canadian telecommunications giant Telus is moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia, following overwhelming demand for its first AI supercomputing facility in Quebec.
The Vancouver-based company announced today that it is working with the Government of Canada and local developer Westbank on a proposed cluster of AI-focused data centres designed to keep Canadian AI computing power and sensitive data within the country. The project forms part of the federal government’s Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative, aimed at strengthening Canada’s domestic AI infrastructure.
Telus notes the three-site B.C. network will eventually scale to more than 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) and 150 megawatts of computing capacity by 2032. The facilities are planned for Kamloops, which is expected to launch later this year, and two locations in Vancouver, which will be fully operational before the end of this decade.
The infrastructure will be powered by advanced computing systems from NVIDIA [emphasis mine], including the company’s latest AI hardware and networking technologies. Telus emphasized that Canadian businesses, post-secondary institutions, governments, and other organizations will be able to train and deploy AI models domestically instead of relying on foreign cloud infrastructure.
The announcement comes less than a year after Telus opened its first Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski, Quebec. According to the company, the facility is already fully booked by customers and has been recognized on the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
The company’s Sovereign AI Factory platform is designed to support the full AI development process — from training large-scale models to deploying AI applications — entirely within Canadian-owned and operated infrastructure.
“We are incredibly proud to be working with the Government of Canada to help build Canada’s sovereign AI infrastructure [emphasis mine],” said Darren Entwistle, the outgoing president and CEO of Telus, in a statement. Entwistle will retire at the end of June 2026.
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Both facilities in Vancouver are being pursued as a direct partnership with Westbank.
The first new Vancouver AI data centre facility will be achieved at the 1977-built, six-storey M3 office building at 111 East 5th Ave. — home to a portion of Hootsuite’s headquarters office for more than a decade. It will see an initial launch in late 2026, with a gradual expansion through 2028 to reach its ultimate on-site size of 77,000 sq. ft. data centre — achieved from the full conversion of the building’s office levels and two underground parking levels, plus the creation of a ground-level restaurant to better serve the area’s office workers.
As part of Westbank’s cluster of buildings in this Mount Pleasant area that form the developer’s Main Alley tech campus of mixed-use office and residential buildings, M3 was originally slated for an eventual renovation for its continued and expanded office uses, including the vertical construction of three additional office floors above the 1970s-built structure. But this pre-pandemic plan is no longer being pursued, with the building’s long-term use pivoting to the Telus AI utility strategy.
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“People toss around the word innovation lightly, but this is a story of true Canadian innovation,” said Ian Gillespie, founder and CEO, Westbank.
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Canada’s sovereign AI infrastructure, eh? Well, the first AI data centre in Vancouver (announced in January 2026) is expected to come online in 2029 at 150 West Georgia St., formerly 720 Beatty St.
Pushback (and some context)
A May 12, 2026 article by Amir Ali in the Daily Hive provides some context both pro and con (resistance to the Vancouver AI data centres is in the following excerpt), Note: Links have been removed,
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Telus suggests the project could generate $9 billion in economic activity in the province [emphasis mine], and create over 1,000 construction jobs, with hundreds more in long-term tech and operation roles.
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In 2024, the Harvard Business Review compiled some data on the environmental costs of AI [emphasis mine].
“The training process for a single AI model, such as a large language model, can consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon [emphasis mine],” the report said.
“All these environmental impacts are expected to escalate considerably, with the global AI energy demand projected to exponentially increase to at least 10 times the current level and exceed the annual electricity consumption of a small country like Belgium by 2026.[emphasis mine]”
The review concluded that AI’s environmental impacts have to resonate with the priorities and interests of local regions.
EarthJustice, a reputable non-profit public interest environmental law organization, also shared some insights on data centres late last month.
“Unchecked electricity demand from data centers threatens to increase health and climate-harming pollution, deplete water supplies [emphasis mine], and undermine our transition to clean energy,” it said.
EarthJustice says that nearby communities suffer from an increase in local air and water pollution, electronic waste, and noise pollution. It also said that data centres require around one to five million gallons of water per day.
“Although less water-intensive technologies are available, most data centers still rely on inefficient evaporative cooling.”
“Data center companies often negotiate secretive, special contracts for discounted power rates with utilities that shift costs onto regular household utility bills,” EarthJustice suggests, and we’ve reached out to BC Hydro for more information relating to local rates.
According to Telus, the Vancouver AI data centres, which work differently from traditional data centres, would be powered by 98 per cent renewable energy. [emphasis mine]
“A closed-loop liquid cooling system will reduce cooling energy consumption by 80 per cent [emphasis mine] compared to traditional data centres.”
“Importantly, in the age of AI, these data centres address Canada’s growing need for security and a Sovereign AI Solution – by providing 100% Canadian controlled infrastructure, data protection, domestic oversight and zero foreign dependency,” Telus said in its media release.
Westbank told Daily Hive that the M3 data centre’s site in Mount Pleasant currently hosts an existing data centre.
“There is no change in use, this is a case of adaptive reuse to support upgraded infrastructure. The urban locations of both data centres allow for the connection to district energy, which is what allows the projects to achieve low carbon outcomes,” Westbank added.
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Ali’s May 12, 2026 article does a good job of noting the advantages and disadvantages; he also presents some reaction/pushback from politicians and from the community, Note: Links have been removed,
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Many have weighed in on the development, including new federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis, who said we should be building affordable homes, a network of public grocery stores, electric buses and an east-west clean energy grid.
“Not massive corporate AI data centres unleashed without any democratic debate,” Lewis said in a post on X.
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Lewis wasn’t the only political leader weighing in.
At the provincial level, Emily Lowan, the leader of the B.C. Greens said while data sovereignty is important, handouts for big AI isn’t the way to get there.
Others responded with shock at the proposed Mount Pleasant location.
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Some brought up water restrictions, making points about how much water will be needed for these centres. Vancouver City Councillor Peter Meiszner responded to that concern.
Peter Meiszner @PeterMeiszner
Water consumption will be 90% lower than traditional data centres, with plans to incorporate recycled water from BC Place. (source @TELUS)
3,308 Views
Lowan responded to the environmental claims in a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized.
“TELUS’s claim that their centres will be powered by 98% clean energy is dubious at best. We’re already importing American coal-powered electricity to deal with our energy crisis. This energy crisis is caused by drought conditions, which will only be made worse by the extensive water usage of data centres,” she said.
Lowan said, “We need a moratorium on AI data centres.”
“Our government should not be celebrating a handout to TELUS to build AI data centres in the heart of Vancouver. Billionaires are hoarding our wealth, and now, our government is letting them hoard even more of our resources.”
Daily Hive Urbanized heard from Councillor Sean Orr about the development, too.
He said, “If we were to ask the people of Vancouver how we should use our infrastructure, our energy, and our space, would they pick data centres or would they pick something else?”
Orr wondered what the impact would be on the Vancouver electrical grid, and whether the corporations and private companies would be paying for additional infrastructure or whether that cost would fall on residents.
“Currently, my understanding is that data centers have a short shelf life before being out of date with newer chips, and the chips themselves don’t last five years. We are building something that will require billions in assets but may become outdated three years after its built,” Orr said.
“Say what you will about pipelines, but they don’t become irrelevant after three years. Is it sovereign infrastructure to keep building something that is extremely expensive, and becomes outdated a year or two after construction completes?”
“Is it sovereign infrastructure to build something that may become a stranded asset very soon? I believe a bunch of data center construction projects are being paused for these very concerns right now,” Orr said.
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On the Vancouver subreddit, most of the opposition seems to be in regard to the chosen locations.
“It seems absolutely nutso to use this sort of transit accessible downtown real estate for something that would mostly house computers and generate relatively few jobs,” a Redditor said, adding, “Next to BC Place, that should be a hotel or office tower. You could put a data centre anywhere else in Metro Vancouver. Baffling.”
Someone else asked, “Doesn’t Vancouver already have water problems?”
What BC Hydro is saying
According to BC Hydro, the utility and the Province are taking a “managed and phased approach to serving these large new loads to protect affordability and reliability for residential customers.”
When it comes to high-demand projects like data centres, BC Hydro says there’s a structured and “competitive” process with capped power allocations, rather than unlimited first-come access.
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[Comments]
AliasCapricious 2 days ago
People complain we have an economy overly reliant on real estate, then turn around and complains about frontier economic infrastructure. The job part isn’t the main thing, but rather Canadian tech companies have the infrastructure needed to be not dependent on US data infra. It keeps our start ups here and thus grow our high-margin tech sector.
The location is somewhat dubious, but these are the sort of thing we need in the next decades. If we are short on water and power we should be doubling down on renewables (wind/solar/hydro) and water infrastructure, since both will be required anyways. Energy demand is what drive further investments in those sectors.
Tin Man 2 days ago
A few years back, the news outlets warned (prepared?) the citizens of the Divided States of America, that there would be “rolling blackouts” due to the high energy demands of local AI data centers.
Is this what B.C. has to look forward to?
Refrigerators, ovens, heating, air conditioners and all the other devices that families depend on will be powered down so that the wealthy owners of these data centers can continue reaping massive wealth?
Jim Bob 2 days ago
No.
We are already looking at water shortages this year. BC Hydro is also under strain. Allowing these data centers to be built here in Vancouver is only going to cause skyrocketing bills for everyone living here.
They should be building these in remote areas, where they don’t need additional cooling and they can build out their own power. Alberta should have plenty of suitable locations. Why not go there?
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cccccc 2 days ago
Residents are split on this? I’ve yet to see someone supporting it. Bad idea, bad locations, bad use of tax payer money.
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Steven Zur 2 days ago
In the news this month – Westbank lawsuits and court documents indicating close to insolvent, Westbank towner nearly complete on Joyce Street goes into receivership, and then out of the blue the Federal government is support Telus’s building datacenters on two Westbank properties. Nothing more than a government handout to a poorly managed property development company.
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Owen 3 days ago
I’d rather see entertainment uses at both locations
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Sovereign data centres in Canada and a real estate developer in trouble
How can a data centre be made sovereign? That is a tricky question; something I’ve already hinted at. Kyle Bakx’s May 14, 2026 article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) news online website details more of the issues,
Canada wants to build data centres that are not just physically located here, but controlled here — a distinction experts say could determine whether the country can reduce its dependence on U.S. tech giants and keep Canadian data subject to Canadian rules.
But as Ottawa reviews more than 160 data-centre proposals to support the growing demands of artificial intelligence, the promise of “sovereign” infrastructure is already running into a harder question: how much control Canada can really have over data centres [emphasis mine] that may still rely on foreign hardware, foreign customers and digital networks that do not always respect national borders.
“This is probably going to be one of the single biggest tech issues that we are going to deal with as a country,” said Ritesh Kotak, a Toronto-based lawyer and technology advisor.
Many countries, including Canada, are heavily dependent on U.S. firms for digital and cloud services [emphasis mine] — the remote computing and data storage offered by technology giants such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Before moving onto the Westbank issues, you might be interested in this 8 mins. interview (aired May 19, 2026) with Chris Madan, Telus (former) Vice-President of Digital Sales & Service; (current) Vice–President Digital Product and Head of AI Factories..Here’s how the segment is described on the CBC Radio’s Early Edition with Stephen Quinn webspace.
Chris Madan, the Telus head of AI factories, responds to concerns over health and environmental impacts surrounding the three-site AI data centre cluster set for construction in B.C.
Madan is a salesman determined to minimize any concerns and promote the company’s interests. Consequently, the value is in hearing how he deflects all the criticisms. (I don’t have a lot of patience with puffery but it can be useful.)
For a contrasting view, there’s Simon Enoch, Andrew Longhurst, and Rachel Pettigrew’s May 18, 2026 article “Vancouver Is Getting AI Data Centres. That’s Not Good” for The Tyee. While I am more sympathetic to their approach, it is unrelentingly negative and fails to mention any possible benefits.
Noise as a problem with data centres was news to me and is mentioned both in the CBC interview and in The Tyee article.
Now, onto the real estate developer.
Westbank towers in receivership
Both Vancouver properties being rezoned to allow the data centres are being developed by Westbank, which is currently experiencing money difficulties, from a May 12, 2026 posting on cityhallwatch.wordpress.org, Note: Links have been removed,
Westbank tower in receivership (5055-5083 Joyce St)
Westbank’s rental tower at 5055-5083 Joyce Street is now under receivership. KSV Advisory Inc. is the receiver and a number of documents and court filings are available on their website. OPTrust was owed approximately $109,211,965. Secured and unsecured creditors have claims of $292,993,043. We’ll include additional links and details as this story unfolds. Included below are several photos of the rental tower at 5083 Joyce Street and the surrounding context.
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This May 11, 2026 article by Liezel Once for CMP magazine dives deeper into the developer’s money woes, Note: A link has been removed,
Westbank’s Joyce tower placed in receivership
Court oversight, $274 million in debt, and a former executive’s sworn claims paint a troubling portrait of a once-iconic developer
A 35-storey rental tower in east Vancouver associated with one of Canada’s most prominent development firms has been placed under court-supervised receivership, adding fresh urgency to a deepening cycle of real estate insolvencies.
The B.C. Supreme Court granted a receivership order on April 27, 2026, over two corporate entities — 5055 Joyce Holdings Inc. and 5055 Joyce Property Inc. — tied to a near-complete mixed-use rental development at 5083 Joyce Street in Vancouver, known informally as “Joyce 2.”
The application was brought by OPTrust [Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Government of Ontario pension fund] Joyce Financing Corp., which is owed approximately $109.2 million on a loan that matured without repayment on December 31, 2025.
The project, developed by Vancouver-based Westbank Holdings Ltd. — a firm founded in 1992 by CEO Ian Gillespie that built some of the city’s most architecturally ambitious buildings over three decades, including the Shangri-La hotels in Vancouver and Toronto — consists of 360 residential rental units, roughly 4,500 square feet of retail space, and 87 underground parking stalls.
Leases have already been executed with commercial and residential tenants, and certain units are occupied.
Court filings show OPTrust’s loan originated in May 2021, initially advanced at $40 million and later increased to $85 million.
The financing carried an interest rate that escalated to 11% after September 2024 and was secured by mortgages, personal property security, share pledges, and guarantees from related parties, including Westbank Holdings Ltd. and founder Ian Gillespie personally.
OPTrust issued a demand for repayment on January 13, 2026.
OPTrust, officially the OPSEU Pension Trust, is one of Canada’s largest defined-benefit pension funds, managing over $27.2 billion in net assets as of year-end 2025 and administering retirement benefits for 118,000 members, primarily Ontario public service employees.
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The receivership is not the only legal matter Westbank is managing.
In a sworn affidavit filed April 29 [2026] in B.C. Supreme Court as part of a continuing breach-of-contract action, former employee Rhiannon Mabberley alleged that Westbank is in a “financially precarious position” and has laid off nearly half of its workforce, and that multiple real estate holdings have been liquidated to cover accumulated debts.
None of these claims have been proven in court [emphasis mine]. Westbank declined to confirm the layoff allegation.
“We cannot comment on matters before the courts, but we would note that none of these claims have been proven,” Westbank spokesperson Ariele Peterson told media.
Mabberley is suing Westbank for $1.2 million she alleges is owed under an employment agreement. Westbank has countered in court that the payment was conditional on project profits that were not achieved.
Her lawyers sought pretrial garnishing orders against Westbank’s corporate bank accounts; an affidavit states that a $1.2 million order ultimately yielded just $32,025.37, which Mabberley says she believes suggests the company has moved funds to protect assets from creditors.
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For anyone unfamiliar with Vancouver and its relationship to real estate developer’s, it’s an important, some might say vital, one, which may explain why Justin McElroy, the CBC’s local municipal affairs reporter wrote this February 24, 2026 article (CBC news online) about Westbank’s legal fracas with one of its former VPs, Note: Links have been removed,
A lawsuit by a former vice-president of a prominent Vancouver development company appears to be revealing more details of many of its biggest projects taking a turn for the worse.
In December [2025?], Rhiannon Mabberley filed a civil claim against Westbank Project Corp., suing for a breach of contract when she left her role as vice-president of development in the first half of 2025.
Mabberley argued Westbank owed her $1.2 million, based on a previous employment agreement, in her claim.
In its response, Westbank says those payments were “dependent on the profits received by Westbank” on projects she was a part of, and those profits were not met.
The response by Westbank does not go into details as to why those profits were not met.
But an affidavit filed by Mabberley, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, reveals what she says is a text message to her from Westbank founder Ian Gillespie — and provides an intimate and stark commentary on the state of his company.
The allegations laid out in the affidavit and wider statement of claim have not been proven in court.
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The alleged text was sent by Gillespie to Mabberley in September, four months after Mabberley left Westbank and three months before she took legal action.
In it, Gillespie references several high-profile development projects in Vancouver that are or formerly were under Westbank’s responsibility, and says that they are not profitable, including:
The Sen̓áḵw complex [emphasis mine] at the foot of the Burrard Bridge, which was originally a 50/50 partnership with the Squamish Nation before Westbank sold its share to Ontario Pension Trust [emphasis mine]. Gillespie texts that “the last minute negotiations resulted in me having to accept a 30% haircut from the original price … which itself was 50% less than we had agreed to last year.”
The recently opened Alberni and Butterfly buildings in downtown Vancouver. Gillespie texts that “Alberni still has many unsold units and … Butterfly is well over budget and closings are slow and uncertain.”
The massive Oakridge Park complex, which began in 2019 and has yet to open. Gillespie texts that “Oakridge is way behind schedule.”
The text ends with Gillespie saying he would offer Mabberley $200,000 “and then we can both go our separate ways,” adding that “it’s unfortunate but it’s the reality of the industry these days.”
In a statement, Westbank would not comment on the veracity of the text messages, saying it has not been proven in court.
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The politics: Westbank, the federal/provincial/municipal governments, and AI data centres
Purely speculation on my part but I wonder if there’s hope that the AI data centres will help Westbank with its current financial woes. Westbank isn’t the only real estate developer experiencing problems as this May 19, 2026 posting on City Hall Watch makes clear,
City Council Preview May 19-20, 2026: Electronic billboards, Developer bailouts (CAC deferrals), 3 Broadway Plan rezonings, Italian Day grant and more
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Staff are asking Council to again extend CAC payment [Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) are in-kind or cash contributions provided by property developers when Vancouver City Council grants development rights through rezoning.] deadline for 4 downtown tower sites (1450 West Georgia St $8,900,000, 1157 Burrard St $10,600,000, 1640-1650 Alberni St $32,700,000 & 1668-1684 Alberni St $37,041,000). This is the third time the request to extend the timeline for CAC payments has gone to Council, with the last extension set to lapse on May 31, 2026. The new target is suggested as May 31, 2028, which is well into the next term of a future Council. Should Council be allowing agreed-upon CAC payments slide again? Is this another developer bailout? [emphasis mine]
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Vancouver’s city hall is not the only government lending assistance to developers. Way back in time there was this September 7, 2022 posting on Bob Mackin’s The Breaker pointing to a cozy relationship between Westbank’s Ian Gillespie and the federal Liberal government then lead by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Note: Links have been removed,
Ian Gillespie, the Westbank Corporation CEO, accepted a token 50 cent payment from members of the Squamish Nation during a ceremony under the Burrard Bridge on Sept. 6 [2022], where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke ground to begin the four-phase, 11-tower Senakw condo project. [emphases mine]
Squamish Nation members agreed to a 50-50 partnership in 2019 with Westbank to build 6,000 units on 4.7 hectares of Kitsilano Indian Reserve 6 regained through court settlements. Since then, Westbank’s share was reduced to 30% and OP Trust [emphasis mine], the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Government of Ontario pension fund, now holds 20%.
By 2029, up to 10,000 people could be living in the rental towers on either side of the bridge. A consultant’s estimate from 2019 suggested the deal could generate as much as $12.7 billion in cashflow for the band and developer [emphasis mine].
Trudeau was accompanied by four cabinet ministers, Patty Hajdu (Indigenous services), Ahmed Hussen (housing), Marc Miller (Crown-Indigenous relations) and Jonathan Wilkinson (natural resources). Before the start of their three-day cabinet retreat in Vancouver, Trudeau announced a $1.4 billion loan through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to finance half the units, touting it as the largest loan in the Crown corporation’s history [emphasis mine]. CMHC spokesman Leonard Catling said the Rental Construction Financing Initiative is providing $668 million for phase one and $745 million for phase two. The loan is on a 10-year term, fixed interest rate and 50-year amortization.
“While we cannot comment on the interest rate for any specific RCF loan, our interest rate generally is lower than alternative financing available in the market,” Catling said.
Gillespie, a Liberal Party supporter and proprietor of Trudeau’s preferred luxury hotel [emphasis mine], the Fairmont Pacific Rim, sat beside NDP Vancouver-Point Grey MLA David Eby [emphasis mine]. Though the construction site is in the Vancouver-False Creek provincial riding, Eby is the frontrunner to replace John Horgan as Premier this fall [Eby is now Premier of BC]. The Squamish Nation is a partner in the MST Development company with the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations in the Jericho lands project in Eby’s riding. Some of that land is proposed for an Olympic Village, if the NDP government backs the Canadian Olympic Committee bid for the 2030 Games and the International Olympic Committee chooses Vancouver next May.
Seated nearby were directors of the Squamish Nation’s economic development company, Nch’kay, including Mike Magee, former Mayor Gregor Robertson’s chief of staff [emphasis mine], and NDP insider Joy MacPhail.
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To sum up, Gillespie/Westbank gets a huge loan at low cost from the federal liberal government and runs into financial trouble a few years later. A former partner agency, OP Trust, forces one of Westbank’s housing projects (not the 11-tower Senakw condo project) into receivership. Meanwhile, Vancouver city hall rezones a couple of Westbank projects so the projects can now house AI data centres. Rather timely, given that there’s a federal Liberal government push for ‘sovereign data centres’ in Canada.
It’s almost like a fairy tale where magical characters pop in and out of the story and wondrous coincidences occur. The Justin Trudeau character transforms into Mark Carney who now leads the federal Liberal government. Gregor Robertson (former Vancouver mayor) transforms into a federal Liberal Minister of Housing [emphasis mine] and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada [emphasis mine]. And of course, there’s the previously mentioned transformation of development projects into housing for data centres at a time when a shortage of housing for people has become a national issue.
The magic doesn’t stop. My May 8, 2026 posting about the 2026 summit notes the presence of Robertson, Eby (current BC Premier), and Ken Sim, current Vancouver mayor at the 2026 Web Summit along with Canada’s federal Liberal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon in what has been touted a great opportunity for local business and startups. Not surprisingly, AI became a major topic of conversation (more about Sim and AI coming in the next subsection).
I have expressed some doubt about the claims made by boosters and politicians about business opportunities and innovation being good for the local economy. It seems I’m not the only one. Dan Burgar, CEO of Frontier Collective.wrote this “Opinion: Vancouver is hosting the future, but we’re not keeping any of it” in a May 19, 2026 posting on the Daily Hive, Note: A link has been removed,
Last week, the second annual Web Summit conference in Vancouver brought over 20,000 people from around the world to the city. They came for our talent, our companies, and our setting. They’ll leave with deals signed, partnerships formed, and ideas that will turn into businesses somewhere else.
That last part is the problem we keep refusing to talk about.
Vancouver is great at hosting innovation. We’re terrible at keeping it.
Slack was built here. It was scaled in San Francisco. Hootsuite, AbCellera, General Fusion, and Clio: every one of them globally significant, and every one of them has had to look outside this city, this province, and often this country for the capital, the customers, and the conditions to grow. The pattern is so consistent it’s stopped being a pattern and started being the model.
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Burger’s point is well taken (although he doesn’t mention D-Wave Systems). He goes on to suggest this,
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The Mayor of Vancouver’s office, the Government of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada all have a role to play, and none of them should wait for the others.
Vancouver should treat innovation infrastructure the same way it treats public transit infrastructure: as a non-negotiable public good that catalyzes everything around it.
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Mayor Sim took another approach at the 2026 Web Summit.
Sim and his AI minions (all 11 of them)
Sim’s missteps at the 2026 Web Summit are in keeping with his current policy of achieving an unbreakable streak (I exaggerate … a little bit) of own goals (even I’m affected by the sports fever of living in a 2026 World Cup city).
For anyone who might like to see a listing for the five months of this year, there’s the Ken SIm webpage on Global News. which as of May 22, 2026 includes these gems, “Report finds Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim misused influence, harassed councillor Sean Orr,” “Vancouver recovery advocate returning honour to city over mayor, council’s actions,” “Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says comments about councillor Sean Orr [accusing Orr of openly selling drugs on Christmas Day 2026] came from an unverified photo,” “Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim files defamation lawsuit against 2 men,” and more.
I have never really recovered from reading Matt O’Grady’s October 4, 2023 article for Vancouver Magazine “A Year In, How’s Mayor Ken Sim Actually Doing?” It provides an unexpected view of our current mayor,
I’m sitting on a couch in the mayor’s third-floor offices, and Ken Sim is walking over to his turntable to put on another record. “How about the Police? I love this album.”
With the opening strains of “Every Breath You Take” crackling to life, Sim is explaining his approach to conflict resolution, and how he takes inspiration from the classic management tome Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
“The way they approach things is, instead of having an adversarial relationship in every decision we look at, imagine you’re two judges on the same side of the table, trying to opine on a very difficult case and get to the best answer,” he says. “We’re just looking for the best answer.”
Suddenly, the office door swings open and Sim’s chief of staff, Trevor Ford, pokes his head in (for the third time in the past 10 minutes). “We have to go. Now.”
“Okay, okay,” says Sim, turning back to address me. “Do you mind if I change while we’re talking?” And so the door closes again—and, without further ado, the Mayor of Vancouver drops trou and goes in search of a pair of shorts, continuing with a story about how some of his west-side friends are vocally against the massive Jericho Lands development promising to reshape their 4th and Alma neighbourhood.
“And I’m like, ‘Let me be very clear: I 100-percent support it, this is why—and we’ll have to agree to disagree,’” he says, trading his baby-blue polo for a fitted charcoal grey T-shirt. Meanwhile, as Sim does his wardrobe change, I’m doing everything I can to keep my eyes on my keyboard—and hoping the mayor finds his missing shorts.
It’s fair to assume that previous mayors weren’t in the habit of getting naked in front of journalists. At least, I can’t quite picture Kennedy Stewart doing so, or Larry or Gordon Campbell either.
But it also fits a pattern that’s developing with Ken Sim as a leader entirely comfortable in his own skin. He’s in a hurry to accomplish big things—no matter who’s watching and what they might say (or write). And he eagerly embraces the idea of bringing Vancouver’s “swagger” back—outlined in his inaugural State of the City address, and underlined when he shotgunned a beer [later reporting indicated a vodka cream soda was shotguneed] at July’s [2023] Khatsahlano Street Party.
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Flying free to the wind, eh?
Moving onto Sim’s latest gaffe in what appears to be an ill advised attempt at impressing an audience of tech innovators, this happened (you can find the story in the headlines),
For anyone who’d like to hear the story, there’s an 11 mins. interview (aired May 14, 2026) with Justin McElroy, CBC’s municipal affairs reporter for BC..Here’s how the segment is described on the CBC Radio’s Early Edition with Stephen Quinn webspace
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is clarifying his comments about having 11 different AI agents doing work for him — but it’s just one of many stories about artificial intelligence that have come this week in Vancouver.
Sim is up for re-election on October 17, 2026. There are seven candidates currently vying to be mayor (Wikipedia entry for 2026 Vancouver municipal election). It should be interesting.
Final thoughts
AI data centres are, generally speaking, not popular. The exception being the folks making money from them or, at least in Vancouver, hoping that their businesses (e.g., Westbank) can be saved by them. There’s been a lot of concern over electricity and water use.
The University of Waterloo’s claim that AI’s climate impact is much smaller than many feared is based on some data from 2016 and earlier. This April 16, 2026 International Energy Agency (IEA) press release about a new report notes this about AI energy use,
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According to the report – Key Questions on Energy and AI – power consumption per AI task is declining rapidly, with efficiency improving at a rate unprecedented in energy history. However, more people are using AI, and energy-intensive uses – such as AI agents – are on the rise [emphasis mine]. As a result, electricity consumption from data centres is set to double by 2030, and power use from those focused on AI is poised to triple.
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Sim and his 11 AI agents (personal use only) not withstanding, it would be interesting to know how much AI is being deployed in city departments, including the police, and plans for AI deployment. (Just an idle thought)
While I have been critical of Simon Enoch, Andrew Longhurst, and Rachel Pettigrew’s May 18, 2026 article “Vancouver Is Getting AI Data Centres. That’s Not Good” for The Tyee, they make some useful points about noise (an issue when these centres are in urban areas) and environmental standards.
I expect unfettered enthusiasm and boosterism from the technology community at something like the Web Summit; it’s disconcerting when found in the city’s mayor. But much more disquieting was this, “Far-Right Speakers Given a Perch at Vancouver’s Web Summit,” May 18, 2026 article by Jen St. Denis for The Tyee. (I’ve added a link and an excerpt from the article at the end of my May 8, 2026 posting about the summit.) There were a lot of politicians at the 2026 summit, maybe next time they’ll check with the organizers about who’s being invited to speak.
AI data centres aren’t just a technology story, they’re also an energy story, a water story, a political story, and, in some cases, a neighbourhood story.
ETA May 22, 2026 at 1530 hours: Massive protest march against Vancouver AI data centres tomorrow (May 23, 2026)
I don’t usually write about issues that are this dynamic but Daniel Chai’s May 22, 2026 article for the Daily Hive features news of a protest. Interestingly, there were no protests when the first AI data centre was announced in January 2026. It seems the Web Summit stimulated an opposition movement, Note: Links have been removed,
A huge demonstration against the proposed cluster of AI data centres in Vancouver will take place on Saturday, May 23, and traffic may be impacted throughout downtown.
A group behind the Instagram page @no.ai.vancouver was formed shortly after news broke that Telus was moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia.
This includes new AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver that could become fully operational before the end of this decade.
“No.ai.vancouver is trying to spread awareness about the impact of AI data centres on the environment, help in halting the construction of these AI data centres, and looking out for the people who call this place home,” said Torin LaRocque, an 18-year-old student living in Vancouver who founded the group.
“I was inspired to create this movement after seeing all the devastation these centres are causing to people living nearby.”
For LaRocque, one of the top negative issues surrounding the proposed facilities is their impact on the environment.
“Telus states that the new AI Data Centres use 90 per cent less energy than the average centre,” said the Vancouver resident. “However, they also state that they will have more than 60,000 GPUs on the conservative side.
“[If] each GPU will process an AI prompt a day, that is still over 1400 litres of water being used a day. Vancouver is already under stage two water restrictions. Why should we let these data centres use the water that Vancouver’s population needs?”
The demonstration on Saturday, May 23, begins with poster-making at Victory Square at 11 a.m., with some supplies provided.
Participants in the protest against the AI Data Centres will meet at Waterfront Station at 1 p.m., with plans to march down Granville Street starting at 1:30 p.m.
The march, which LaRocque said could draw a large procession, will continue over the bridge until it reaches Granville Island.
Officers from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) will be on site during the demonstration.
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LaRocque, who describes himself as an initiator of the group, shared that the positive response from the community has been honestly shocking.
“I am confident that if enough people show up and demand change, either by protesting or signing the petition, we can bring this to the city with more than just one person backing it up. The more signatures and protesters we have, the more the City will be unable to ignore.”
The group has also shared a link to a petition calling for a stop to the Vancouver AI Data Centre, which has garnered over 1,400 signatures as of press time.
Daily Hive reached out to the City for comment on the protest, with a representative responding, “The City of Vancouver recognizes and upholds the right to free speech and peaceful protest.” [almost like an AI agent wrote the reply]
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Should you be interested in going to the protest, Victory Square’s address is: 200 W Hastings St.
This research challenges my understanding of energy consumption by data centres and increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI). On the plus side, it’s always good to have your ideas challenged and, in turn, to challenge the challengers!
This news was released twice. (Presumably, it didn’t get as much attention as hoped for the first time around.) A December 6, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily (rerun with a changed headline as a March 18, 2026 news item) provides a startling (to me) piece of information,
Artificial intelligence is often blamed for driving up energy use and worsening climate change, but new research suggests its overall impact on global emissions is surprisingly small. The findings even point to potential environmental and economic benefits as AI continues to expand.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo and the Georgia Institute of Technology analyzed data from across the U.S. economy alongside estimates of how widely AI is being used in different industries. Their goal was to understand what might happen to energy use and emissions if AI adoption keeps growing at its current pace.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 83 per cent of the U.S. economy is powered by petroleum, coal and natural gas, all of which contribute to climate change when burned. The study authors found that while power usage from AI in the U.S. equalled the energy consumption for all of Iceland, the amounts were not noticeable on a global or national scale.
“It is important to note that the increase in energy use is not going to be uniform. It’s going to be felt more in the places where electricity is produced to power the data centres,” said Dr. Juan Moreno-Cruz, a professor in the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo and Canada Research Chair in Energy Transitions. “If you look at that energy from the local perspective, that’s a big deal because some places could see double the amount of electricity output and emissions. But at a larger scale, AI’s use of energy won’t be noticeable.”
While this paper did not examine the effects on local economies where the data centres are located, the researchers found some encouraging results.
“For people who believe that the use of AI will be a major problem for the climate and think we should avoid it, we’re offering a different perspective,” Moreno-Cruz said. “The effects on climate are not that significant, and we can use AI to develop green technologies or to improve existing ones.”
To reach their conclusions, environmental economists Moreno-Cruz and Dr. Anthony Harding examined different sectors of an economy, the jobs within those sectors, and what portion of them could be done by AI.
Moreno-Cruz and Harding plan to repeat the study for other countries to measure the impacts of AI adoption in other parts of the world.
The authors, as good academics do, critique their own work in the Discussion portion of the paper. Some of the (1) data is quite old and, in some cases, they had (2) only one source. Also (3), from the paper,
Funding disclosure
A R H and J M C were supported by funding from Google. The funder had no role in the design, analysis, interpretation, or writing of this paper. All findings and conclusions are solely those of the authors.
Google, eh? Maybe add an extra grain of salt when reading the research.
Finally, all of the data is focused on industrial and occupational use, from the paper
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Future research could address some of the limitations identified here, incorporating dynamic effects, exploring industry-specific AI impacts, and investigating the interplay between AI-driven productivity gains and energy efficiency improvements. Such work would further refine our understanding of AI’s role in shaping future energy demand and environmental outcomes. Additionally, as more data becomes available on the real-world impacts of AI adoption across different industries, researchers can update and refine the estimates presented in this study.
It is also worth considering the potential for AI itself to contribute to solutions for energy efficiency and emissions reduction. AI technologies could play a significant role in optimizing renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. AI can also optimize industrial processes, increasing overall efficiency and reducing waste. Future studies should consider these aspects to provide a more comprehensive view of AI’s environmental impact.
5. Conclusion
In conclusion, our study provides a valuable starting point for understanding the broader energy and environmental implications of AI adoption across the economy. We hope to stimulate further research and informed discussion on this important topic by highlighting both the potential impacts and the areas of uncertainty. As AI continues to evolve and reshape various aspects of our economy and society, ongoing analysis and monitoring of its energy and environmental impacts will ensure sustainable development of these transformative technologies.
Perhaps, the authors also could have acknowledged that the impact of personal AI usage should also be considered for future research and when data is available.
In light of the paper’s focus on industry and occupational use, perhaps its title “Watts and bots: the energy implications of AI adoption” should have been more specific.
Thought experiment (sort of): what about personal usage?
Thanks to the authors and their paper for stimulating some new thoughts about AI and data centres, namely, that personal usage could become very important not only culturally, but, also in terms of energy consumption..
For example, research from the University of British Columbia (UBC) “The AI Genie Phenomenon and Three Types of AI Chatbot Addiction: Escapist Roleplays, Pseudosocial Companions, and Epistemic Rabbit Holes” by M. Karen Shen, Jessica Huang, Olivia Liang, Ig-Jae Kim, and Dongwook Yoon who presented it at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems suggests to me that personal usage (whether it’s considered an addiction or not) may constitute a higher percentage of use than is currently imagined or considered in figures in the data considered by the University of Waterloo researchers.
Note: For anyone interested in the UBC paper, it’s open access and there is an April 27, 2026 UBC news release (also on EurekAlert) for anyone who wants a brief overview of the work.
AI data centres(ers) seem to have become a bigger news interest than they used to be. The concerns are focused largely on cost—electricity and water use but there’s at least one other concern. (h/t CanadaWater Portal) A November 10, 2025 Cornell University news release (also on EurekAlert) by Dan Nutt lays out the other concern, environmental impact, Note: Links have been removed,
As the everyday use of AI has exploded in recent years, so have the energy demands of the computing infrastructure that supports it. But the environmental toll of these large data centers, which suck up gigawatts of power and require vast amounts of water for cooling, has been too diffuse and difficult to quantify.
Now, Cornell researchers have used advanced data analytics – and, naturally, some AI, too – to create a state-by-state look at that environmental impact. The team found that, by 2030, the current rate of AI growth would annually put 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the emissions equivalent of adding 5 to 10 million cars to U.S. roadways. It would also drain 731 to 1,125 million cubic meters of water per year – equal to the annual household water usage of 6 to 10 million Americans. The cumulative effect would put the AI industry’s net-zero emissions targets out of reach.
On the upside, the study also outlines an actionable roadmap that would use smart siting, faster grid decarbonization and operational efficiency to cut these impacts by approximately 73% (carbon dioxide) and 86% (water) compared with worst-case scenarios.
The findings were published Nov. 10 [2026] in Nature Sustainability. The first author is doctoral student Tianqi Xiao in the Process-Energy-Environmental Systems Engineering (PEESE) lab.
“Artificial intelligence is changing every sector of society, but its rapid growth comes with a real footprint in energy, water and carbon,” said Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering in Cornell Engineering, who led the project. “Our study is built to answer a simple question: Given the magnitude of the AI computing boom, what environmental trajectory will it take? And more importantly, what choices steer it toward sustainability?”
In order to quantify the environmental footprints of the nation’s AI computing infrastructure, the team began three years ago to compile “multiple dimensions” of financial, marketing and manufacturing data to understand how the industry is expanding, combined with location-specific data on power systems and resource consumption, and how they connect with changes in climate.
“There’s a lot of data, and that’s a huge effort. Sustainability information, like energy, water, climate, tend to be open and public. But industrial data is hard, because not every company is reporting everything,” You said. “And of course, eventually, we still need to be looking at multiple scenarios. There’s no way that one size fits all. Every region is different for regulations. We used AI to fill some of the data gap as well.”
But projecting the impacts wasn’t enough. The researchers also wanted to provide data-driven guidance for sustainable growth of AI infrastructure.
“There isn’t a silver bullet,” You said. “Siting, grid decarbonization and efficient operations work together – that’s how you get reductions on the order of roughly 73% for carbon and 86% for water.”
By far, one of the most important factors: location, location, location.
Many current data clusters are being constructed in water-scarce regions, such as Nevada and Arizona. And in some hubs, for example northern Virginia, rapid clustering can strain local infrastructure and water resources. Locating facilities in regions with lower water-stress and improving cooling efficiency could slash water demands by about 52%, and when combined with grid and operational best practices, total water reductions could reach 86%, the study found. The Midwest and “windbelt” states – particularly Texas, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota – would deliver the best combined carbon-and-water profile.
“New York state remains a low-carbon, climate-friendly option thanks to its clean electricity mix of nuclear, hydropower and growing renewables,” You said, “although prioritizing water-efficient cooling and additional clean power is key.”
If decarbonization does not catch up with the computing demand, emissions could rise roughly 20%.
“Even if each kilowatt-hour gets cleaner, total emissions can rise if AI demand grows faster than the grid decarbonizes,” You said. “The solution is to accelerate the clean-energy transition in the same places where AI computing is expanding.”
However, decarbonizing the grid can only do so much. Even in the ambitious high-renewablesscenario, by 2030 carbon dioxide would drop roughly 15% compared to the baseline, and approximately 11 million tons of residual emissions would remain, requiring roughly 28 gigawatts of wind or 43 gigawatts of solar capacity to reach net-zero.
The researchers determined that deploying an array of energy- and water-efficient technologies, such as advanced liquid cooling and improved server utilization, could potentially remove another 7% of carbon dioxide and lower water use by 29%, for a total water reduction of 32% when combined.
As companies such as OpenAI and Google funnel more and more money into rapidly building AI data centers to keep up with demand, this is a pivotal moment for coordinated planning between industry, utilities and regulators to avoid local water scarcity and higher grid emissions, according to You.
“This is the build-out moment,” he said. “The AI infrastructure choices we make this decade will decide whether AI accelerates climate progress or becomes a new environmental burden.”
Co-authors include researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden; Concordia University in Montreal, Canada; and RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment in Milan, Italy.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science program.
Despite the title of my February 6, 2026 posting (AI is an energy/water hog. Where is all the power coming from? plus UN defines new “era of global water bankruptcy”), I noted there that it’s not all bad news but we do need to make some smart choices..
Finally, there’s Data Center Watch, “a boutique research firm tracking the growing opposition to data center development,” offers an interesting perspective. The company claims its research is “objective, fact-based, and nonpartisan.”
An October 23,2025 University of British Columbia news release (also on EurekAlert) announced how researchers turned ‘molecular detectives’ discovered a specific (an previously unknown) bacterium plays a part in the process of turning food waste into renewable natural gas (RNG),
When 115,000 tonnes of food waste hit Surrey’s [Surrey, BC] processing facility each year, an invisible army goes to work—billions of microbes convert everything from banana peels to leftover pizza into renewable natural gas (RNG). Now, UBC researchers have identified a previously unknown bacterium in the Natronincolaceae family that plays a crucial role in this process.
RNG is produced when organic waste from landfills, farms and wastewater plants breaks down. The resulting gas is captured, cleaned and upgraded into usable energy.
Here’s how it works. Inside an anaerobic digester, bacteria first break food scraps into simple compounds like fatty acids, amino acids, and sugars. Other microbes turn these into organic acids, such as acetic acid—essentially vinegar. Methane-producing organisms then feed on the acetic acid to make methane, which is refined into RNG. The newly discovered microbe is one of these critical methane producers.
Molecular detectives
The discovery, published today [October ??, 2025] in Nature Microbiology, was led by Dr. Ryan Ziels, associate professor in UBC’s department of civil engineering, who studies how to turn waste into useful resources using biological treatments.
“We were studying microbial energy production in the Surrey Biofuel Facility when we noticed something odd: the microbes that usually consume acetic acid had vanished, yet the methane kept flowing,” said Dr. Ziels. “Traditional methods couldn’t identify the organisms doing the heavy lifting.”
To solve the mystery, the team fed microbes nutrients containing a heavier form of carbon. Microbes use carbon to build new proteins—so by tracing the carbon in proteins, researchers could tell who was doing the work.
“Converting waste to methane is a cooperative process involving multiple interacting microbes,” explained Dr. Steven Hallam, a professor in UBC’s department of microbiology and immunology and a co-author on the paper. “This newly identified bacterium is one of the key players making it happen.”
Staying out of a pickle
Protein-rich food waste naturally produces ammonia as it breaks down, but too much ammonia can halt methane production and cause aceticacid to build up, turning waste tanks acidic and unproductive. The newly discovered microbes, however, tolerate high ammonia levels that would shut down other methane producers, keeping the system running when it would normally fail.
“Municipal facilities owe a lot to these organisms,” said Dr. Ziels. “If acetic acid builds up, tanks have to be dumped and restarted—an expensive, messy process.”
The findings help explain why some digesters sputter while others, like Surrey’s, continue producing energy under challenging conditions. The discovery also suggests that high-ammonia environments may actually benefit these key microbes, offering insights for more efficient designs.
Managing waste on land and sea
The molecular tagging approach could also detect other elusive microbes. Dr. Ziels and his colleagues are now using the same technique to study microbial communities breaking down microplastics in the ocean.
As cities worldwide wrestle with waste management and low-carbon energy transitions, the team believes some of nature’s smallest organisms may hold the keys to our biggest environmental challenges.
“Next time you toss your scraps in the compost bin, remember: you’re not just composting. You’re feeding microscopic powerhouses that help produce cleaner energy,” said Dr. Ziels.
The research was conducted in collaboration with Fortis BC and Convertus. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute and Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory also contributed to the study.
Additional quotes:
“We’re delighted to help support British Columbia’s research ecosystem that has the potential for real-world impact. Advancements like this—that deepen our understanding of anaerobic digestion—may have the potential to enable facilities like Surrey Biofuels to produce more Renewable Natural Gas from the same amount of organic waste. Collaborations between UBC, FortisBC and the Surrey Biofuel facility continue to strengthen our ability to support lower carbon energy solutions.” – Jamie King, director, innovation and measurement, FortisBC
“At our Surrey facility, we strive to maintain a stable microbial community in order to achieve the benefits of RNG as a clean biofuel. If stability is compromised, this has significant financial implications as production schedules must be adjusted and we would have to re-start from scratch.” – Felizia Crozier, process support engineer, Convertus Group
Thank you to the writer who came up with a delightful approach to writing up the research.
Here’s a link to and a citation fro the paper,
Activity-targeted metaproteomics uncovers rare syntrophic bacteria central to anaerobic community metabolism by Skyler Friedline, Elizabeth A. McDaniel, Matthew Scarborough, Maxwell Madill, Kate Waring, Vivian S. Lin, Rex R. Malmstrom, Danielle Goudeau, William Chrisler, Morten K. D. Dueholm, Leo J. Gorham, Chathuri J. Kombala, Lydia H. Griggs, Heather M. Olson, Sophie B. Lehmann, Nathalie Munoz, Jesse Trejo, Nikola Tolic, Ljiljana Pasa-Tolic, Sarah M. Williams, Mary Lipton, Steven J. Hallam & Ryan M. Ziels. Nature Microbiology volume 10, pages 2749–2767 (2025) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-025-02146-w Published: 21 October 2025 Version of record: 21 October 2025 Issue date: November 2025
