EverWind’s $10-billion project promises major economic benefits for Nova Scotia

EverWind Fuels Co. is planning a $10-billion investment in a data centre campus on Cape Breton Island and an expanded onshore wind portfolio across mainland Nova Scotia, a project the company describes as the largest privately funded infusion in the province’s history.

The project is expected to create about 2,000 construction jobs and 215 permanent operating positions, while generating significant economic benefits for local communities.

EverWind is funding the entire capital investment, including more than $8 billion to develop and finance a data centre, and another $2 billion to advance its onshore wind projects.

“This is a $10-billion announcement. Those don’t happen in Nova Scotia every day,” Kings-Hants MP Kody Blois, the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, said at Friday’s announcement. “Today is an absolute trademark day for Nova Scotia.”

EverWind said the investment is expected to generate $1.9 billion in gross domestic product during the data centre’s construction period and an estimated $136 million in annual GDP once it is fully developed.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said the investment reflects growing momentum in the province and addresses a broader Canadian need for secure computing infrastructure.

“There’s incredible momentum for our province right now, and this is another step in that momentum,” Houston said.

Houston noted that data processing underpins everything from health care and banking to business and government services, arguing that Canada needs greater domestic computing capacity.

“We need more compute power in this country,” he said. “The data we use every day in our health-care system, for all of our banking needs, everything on our phones, businesses run on this data. Government runs on it. We need more secure infrastructure, more secure data infrastructure. This is part of that puzzle.”

Across the data centre and wind projects, EverWind projects more than $400 million in municipal tax revenues over their lifetimes. The company said it is also committing tens of millions of dollars to an initial community development program serving the Strait region.

EverWind founder and CEO Trent Vichie said the project would create high-paying, skilled positions in operations, maintenance, cooling systems and electrical infrastructure, drawing on the region’s existing workforce and creating opportunities for additional specialized expertise.

“These are high-paying, highly skilled jobs,” Vichie said, adding that the permanent positions would be in addition to indirect employment generated through local businesses and services.

He described the investment as a way to strengthen Nova Scotia’s economic resilience by combining its energy resources with growth in the knowledge economy.

“We need this type of investment to support that part of the equation,” Vichie added. “Resources and knowledge, and Canadians have that in spades.”

EverWind said it already has more than 20 Nova Scotia contracts underway, spanning civil and electrical work, trucking, engineering, environmental services, equipment supply and project services.

The data centre campus – which will be built in two stages, with the first expected to come online by the end of 2027 and the second in 2028 – will be located in Cape Breton’s Point Tupper industrial park, alongside EverWind’s proposed green hydrogen and ammonia facility.

The first phase will be a 95-megawatt facility housed in a 200,000-square-foot warehouse at Point Tupper. The second phase will bring the campus to its full 420-megawatt capacity. EverWind said it has signed a long-term lease agreement with an unnamed “leading frontier AI developer.”

The development will also include a 200-megawatt battery storage bank, with several hundred megawatt hours of storage capacity, to help support the facility’s energy needs.

The company plans to invest $2 billion in four onshore wind projects — Bear Lake, Windy Ridge, Kmtnuk and Upper Afton — to help meet growing industrial electricity demand. Together, the projects are expected to provide 650 megawatts of wind power from 80 turbines across northeastern Nova Scotia.

EverWind said existing generation on the provincial grid will supply the data centre initially, with wind power supporting its electricity needs over time. Company officials said a system-impact study by the provincial grid operator found the grid could accommodate the first phase.

A First Nations consortium led by Membertou Development Corp. is negotiating a nine per cent equity stake in the data centre. The consortium is expected to own 51 per cent of the wind portfolio.

EverWind said it has committed to funding all electricity connections, transmission requirements, network upgrades and other power system costs attributable to the project, saying those expenses will not be passed on to Nova Scotia ratepayers.

“No project-driven increases to electricity rates for other customers,” a company spokesperson said, adding that the company would cover the infrastructure costs required to connect and support the development.

To cool the data centre, EverWind said it will use a closed-loop water-glycol system, in which a mixture circulates through sealed pipes rather than being routinely discharged.

Water will be supplied by Landrie Lake, which serves the Town of Port Hawkesbury and surrounding industrial customers. EverWind said it already has the necessary permitting to access the water supply. The provincial regulator has approved withdrawals of up to 34 million litres per day from the lake. The data centre’s projected full-operation demand would represent about 1.5 per cent of that daily volume, EverWind said.

The company estimates the first phase will require an average of 100,000 litres of water per day, rising to 500,000 litres daily when both phases are operating.

Vichie said Nova Scotia’s cooler climate would help limit water consumption by reducing the need for water-assisted cooling throughout much of the year.

“It’s a cool climate,” he said, “it’s actually more sustainable to do it here, so you’re not wasting resources.”

Blois added that the facility would consume less water “than some fish plants across the province.”

As for EverWind’s planned green hydrogen and ammonia facility at Point Tupper, the company said it continues to pursue opportunities to supply European markets.

The facility and data centre are intended to form part of a broader energy hub, operating alongside one another using shared energy resources and industrial infrastructure.

“This is a direct complement to it,” Vichie said of the hydrogen project. “Our job is to prosecute the investments that are ready to go now.”

Vichie acknowledged that the hydrogen market is still developing but said EverWind remains committed to advancing the project and is actively pursuing commercial opportunities.

“We’ve done the work and we’re ready to pursue it,” he said, adding that commercial discussions are continuing.