northern B.C. Data Centres Pivot from Bitcoin Mining to AI
Data centres in northern british Columbia, initially established for bitcoin mining, are undergoing a transition to accommodate the growing demands of artificial intelligence (AI) data storage. Iren, a company operating facilities near Prince George and Mackenzie, is leading this shift.
Iren’s Mackenzie facility, located 184 kilometres from Prince george, currently has an 80 megawatt power capacity. The company currently employs 60 permanent staff across both its Prince george and Mackenzie sites and plans to triple that number. The planned upgrades are also expected to generate approximately 100 temporary construction jobs at peak expansion.
According to Iren’s CEO, James Draper, the move to AI is driven by the fact that AI data storage is more labor intensive than bitcoin mining, possibly bringing more jobs to the region. He also highlighted B.C.’s advantages for data centres, including access to hydroelectricity and a climate that allows for equipment cooling without water usage.
“We were seeing a withdrawal of a number of manufacturing and industrial users of electricity,particularly pulp and paper mills,lumber mills,etc. and there was a lot of electrical infrastructure that had been built to service those operations,” Draper said.
However, the province announced policy changes in October 2025 prioritizing power for natural resource projects and requiring AI data centres to bid for electricity access. B.C.Hydro will begin accepting project proposals in early 2026, with a combined 300 megawatts allocated to AI projects and 100 megawatts to other data centres over a two-year period.Projects will be evaluated based on their alignment with B.C.’s economic objectives, including job creation and benefits to provincial interests, while staying within allocated energy volumes.
The policy changes also permanently enforce a ban on new cryptocurrency connections to the power grid.
Kate Harland, a research lead for clean growth at the Canadian Climate Institute, explained the need for the changes given increasing electricity demand. “The old system was very much ’first come, first served’ and there was very little ability for B.C. Hydro to say no to some of the crypto mining sector that was growing,” she said. “There wasn’t necessarily the kind of local economic benefit that was coming with that.”
Harland believes AI data centres offer greater potential benefits, including improvements to telecommunications infrastructure, employment opportunities, and increased computing capacity. “What other benefits can it bring with it versus, you know, another data center, or maybe another industry that might be looking for that same power?”
Draper confirmed that Iren will be unable to expand its bitcoin operations under the new regulations, but had already planned a shift towards AI storage. He stated that Iren intends to continue operating and expanding in B.C., despite the new regulatory constraints.
“Whenever you have a situation where governments are determining allocation of resources rather than markets, I think it generally produces less efficient outcomes than deciding, you know, letting the market decide,” Draper said.
Iren is currently proceeding with upgrades to its B.C. facilities, with work expected to continue into next year.
