Coffee Before Compute: What the Summer of 2026 Taught Us About Building Data Centres in Alberta

Alberta has some of the cheapest natural gas in North America, a cold climate, available land and a province that wants the business. Every line on the spreadsheet checks out. So why did the two largest gas-fired data centre projects in the province spend the summer of 2026 stalled, while Meta broke ground in Sturgeon County? Brett Wightman, Principal of Perigee North and a veteran of eight years building gas processing infrastructure in the Grande Prairie Region, walks through what this means for the gas business at sub-$2 AECO: what a data centre actually brings a host community, why “coffee before compute” beats a town hall stage, and why the energy sector already holds the missing piece most developers underestimate.

Brett Wightman, P.Eng., MBA, is Principal of Perigee North, an Alberta advisory firm focused on the front half of data centre development – siting, power supply, permitting and community – and CFO of Clampett Energy, an Alberta junior oil producer. He spent eight years at CSV Midstream Solutions, most recently as Manager of Innovation and Sustainability, where he worked on the permitting, construction and operation of gas processing facilities in the Grande Prairie region and built the company’s operational data platform. That experience, including the community and Indigenous engagement that came with it, is the foundation for his current work with developers, generation owners, municipalities and Indigenous nations on behind-the-meter power and data centre projects across the province. He has spoken on the topic at PTAC’s Digital Innovation Forum, the CPAA annual conference and the Brooks Newell Data Centre Forum, and writes regularly on LinkedIn about Alberta’s energy market and the data centre build-out.