‘200 Metres Away’: Residents Rally to Keep Alberta’s Second-Largest Power Plant Out of Their Backyard

Residents in Olds, Alberta, are organizing to block a 1.4-gigawatt gas power plant slated for construction directly across from their homes.

Located 90 kilometres north of Calgary, the town of 10,000 people is known for its agricultural college and botanic gardens. It may soon host a massive 1.4-gigawatt gas plant designed to fuel an artificial intelligence data centre campus with an energy demand equivalent to more than one million homes.

Synapse Real Estate Corp. wants to build the plant and campus within town boundaries.

“We knew data centres were on the horizon, but we didn’t realize we were going to get Canada’s biggest data centre and it was going to come holding hands with Alberta’s second-biggest power plant,” Olds resident Eric Carlson told The Energy Mix. Carlson and his wife have three children, with another on the way. Their home is about 600 metres from the proposed site.

Most residents found out about Synapse’s plans late January, just days before an open house on Feb. 4. So many residents showed up for the public information meeting that they had to split into two groups due to space restrictions.

In February, Olds rezoned 300 acres of agricultural land that Synapse had purchased as “light industrial” to accommodate a data centre.

“Light industrial” once referred to businesses like welding companies and tow truck services “that shut down at 5 o’clock,” Carlson said. “They don’t run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and they don’t bother the neighbours.”

The Mix emailed the Town of Olds several times with questions about the project, including the zoning decision. The story will be updated when the Town responds. On its website, Olds writes it is “trying to attract data centres to support our local economy and align with provincial priorities.”

$100 Billion Worth of Data Centres

In 2024, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced she planned to attract $100 billion worth of data centre infrastructure investment to the province. But with little grid capacity available, Smith said the necessary new power plants would serve a dual role by also boosting domestic demand for gas. Data centres have become an integral part of her plan to double the province’s oil and gas production.

Smith set a levy for data centres, but exempted projects that “brought their own power.” Companies answered the call. Sixteen new data centres are either proposed or under construction in the province, and the majority are expected to be gas-powered.

Rachel Sorenson, whose family lives across the street from the proposed power plant in Olds, told The Mix: “The future of my life in this town is 100% at stake.”

Sorenson, a retired paramedic who has lived in the community since 2014, said one of her grandsons suffers from asthma and would be at heightened risk if the plant were built.

“I wouldn’t be able to stay here as my home is less than 200 metres away,” Sorenson said. In her submission to the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC), she wrote that being exposed to increased pollutants and fine particulates could worsen her grandson’s condition.

The AUC is currently considering Synapse’s power plant application, which was submitted on Feb.12.

Synapse President and CEO Jason van Gaal told The Mix the company chose Olds because “it’s a large enough town to find and hire great local people,” is strategically positioned between Edmonton and Calgary, and is close to gas resources.

He said the project would include 10 separate 140-megawatt gas plants, each running on two 50-megawatt gas turbines and one 140-megawatt heat-recovery steam generator to capture waste heat and increase efficiency. Each of the 10 plants will have its own large stack, towering above the town at around 17.4 metres. The plant will also have 600 emergency back-up diesel generators in case of power loss.

Van Gaal knows the plant will produce emissions, but said the company is “actively looking at options” to mitigate impact. Carbon capture is not planned in the near future.

There are about 700 homes within 800 metres of the Synapse power plant.

‘Driven by Developer Convenience’

“It is difficult to understand how this specific location was determined to be appropriate when the long-term residential impact appears so significant,” Carlson wrote in his submission to the AUC. “From a planning perspective, this location feels driven more by developer convenience than by careful consideration of community livability.”

Van Gaal said Synapse will also need to construct a 50-kilometre gas pipeline that will be completed in two phases: first connecting to a nearby gas plant “under shorter timelines,” then building out the rest of the pipeline later.

The company is in the final stages of submissions for its development permit from the town, and if it’s approved by the provincial regulator, the plant may launch as early as September. In its AUC application, Synapse wrote that there were no “outstanding public or industry objections and/or concerns.”

But local residents organized their own public meeting on Feb. 24, which organizers report was attended by about 120 people. Their group, Olds Residents for Responsible Development, opposes the project in its current location.

They also have a Facebook group with about 230 members. Their list of concerns includes noise pollution and mental health impacts, the health effects of air emissions, water usage, property values, stress on municipal infrastructure, electronic waste, chemicals, and affordability for low-income residents.

Another open house will be held mid-March.

Moving Too Fast

“It’s a big project for the community and I know there’s a few residents in the area that have concerns and rightfully so, so we’re just communicating with them about exactly what it is we’re doing, and doing our best to speak to those concerns,” van Gaal told The Mix.

But residents still feel the project is moving too fast. “There has been little to no time to fully understand the scope of this project, let alone take any steps to try to mitigate concerns of the townspeople,” Jordan Eliuk, who lives less than a kilometre from the proposed site, wrote in her AUC submission.

Meanwhile, van Gaal said he’s already had 300 people apply for jobs, and that some small businesses have reached out to thank him for the project.

Synapse promises 1,000 permanent jobs, including at the power plant, and up to 2,000 temporary construction jobs.

Van Gaal said he’s met with some Indigenous groups, and spoken with the province’s Aboriginal Consultation Office. The site is located on Treaty 7 territory, but he said “we’re not in close proximity to Indigenous land and this is privately-owned land.”

He said the project would “respect the province’s requirements,” but did not respond to a follow-up question about those requirements before this story was published.

“The provincial government has publicized this project as ‘starting and opening in 2026,’ and has promoted this as a done deal,” Olds resident Janey Olson wrote in a letter to the AUC. “It has given many in our community the impression they have no voice.”

Olson told The Mix she had written a letter to Smith outlining her concerns and calling for the premier to hold a town hall about the project. Staff in the premier’s office told her they had forwarded her letter to the Technology and Innovation Minister.

Cover photo: Mramoeba CCO 01/wikimedia commons