Toronto-based solar energy developer SolarBank Corporation (SUUN-Q) will be branching into the data centre sector to develop, own and partner on infrastructure in the rapidly growing field.

"Expanding into the data centre business aligns with our vision of creating a resilient and sustainable energy grid," Richard Lu, CEO of SolarBank, said in the announcement.

"Our experience in renewable energy will enable us to deliver energy-efficient, carbon-reducing data centres to support today's data needs and tomorrow's technological advancements.”

SolarBank develops and owns solar projects and battery energy storage systems in Canada and the U.S., and recently also announced a foray into electric vehicle charging. The company has developed over 100 megawatts of combined capacity and says it has a development pipeline of over one gigawatt (GW).

SolarBank's data centre plan

SolarBank is exploring ownership and partnership opportunities in the data centre sector to deliver low-carbon solutions that support its immediate and long-term growth goals, the release states.

Integrating renewable energy into emerging markets is named as one of the company’s goals, alongside reducing the carbon footprint of data centres.

Expected locations for development, ownership and partnering were not named in the release, nor any specifics about how it would help reduce carbon emissions from the facilities.

Data centres, buildings that house large computing systems, are surging in demand worldwide because of greater need for internet services and artificial intelligence. A report by Cushman & Wakefield covering the first six months of this year found North America has reached 18.5 GW of operational capacity and added 1.7 GW of new capacity during the six-month period.

Ontario and Quebec are the main data centre hubs of Canada, with 80 in Toronto and 48 in Montreal according to Data Center Map.

Notable companies operating in Toronto are providers such as Cologix, Digital Realty, Equinix, STACK Infrastructure and Compass Datacenters. Vantage Data Centers is a major Quebec player, having invested over $1 billion into the province.

Greening data centres

With the uptick in data centres comes a cost. The facilities are heavy users of energy and water, inflicting greater strain on electrical grids and water supplies. Research by Morgan Stanley suggests the data centre boom would result in approximately 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions globally by 2030.

Though the electricity in Ontario is over 90 per cent zero-emission and Quebec’s is close to zero-carbon, the hunger for energy from data centres is an increasing concern.

At the recent Montreal Real Estate Forum, Dave Rhéaume, the executive vice-president of energy planning and customer experience at Hydro-Québec, explained the province’s power supply is nearing capacity due to rising electricity demand and electrification.

In response, companies such as Cologix, ABB and Zoho are prioritizing energy and water efficiency in Canada. Cologix, for example, has invested into technology such as water-cooled magnetic levitation chillers. ABB incorporated advanced energy management and monitoring systems to reduce energy and HVAC costs for equipment cooling.