The E-Waste Column no. 217

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Today, we are looking at planned new datacenters in Finland, with a particular focus on Google’s recent €13 billion investment.

🌱 Why are datacenters being built in Finland?

Over the past few years, there has been a lot of discussion and debate on the construction, cooling, and raw material needs of datacenters in Europe. The growing use of AI and the desire to not be dependent on datacenters in the U.S. and China has contributed to the decision to build more datacenters in the EU – even if these are not being built or operated by European companies. Within Europe, Finland is considered an attractive location for datacenters as electricity, which datacenters need a lot of, is comparatively cheap. Beyond this, the colder climate and the availability of low-carbon electricity in Finland help to reduce the costs and emissions associated with the cooling of the datacentres. In light of this, Microsoft, ByteDance (which owns TikTok), Google, and Verda have announced plans to invest in datacenters in Finland.

🌱 What initially sparked public debate?

The construction of a datacenter “the size of 70 football fields” by Microsoft in Kirkkonummi and the fact that this datacenter uses large amounts of freshwater from Lake Meiko, which is “an ecologically rare and valuable nature reserve”, initially raised environmental concerns around datacenters in Finland. Beyond this, the Finnish government’s decision to grant €660m in tax breaks to datacenters and mines, which are mostly extracting raw materials for new datacenters, has led to considerable public debate.

🌱 Why are the future plans controversial?

Google’s €13 billion investment to build datacenters and AI infrastructure in Finland, which was announced on 9 September 2026 and is the company’s “largest single investment in Europe”, has raised broader questions about datacenters’ use of local resources, energy, and contributions to the climate crisis. Given the high energy demands of the planned datacenters, Google has notably concluded a 22-year-long contract with Fortum to be able to use up to half of the electricity capacity from their nuclear power station in Loviisa. Google also acquired at least 2100 hectares of land – including 1400 hectares from the state forest agency – to construct its datacenters across multiple locations in Finland. The Finnish nature conservation association suspects that Google may have illegally logged over 300 hectares of forest in Muhos, and that further illegal logging may also have been carried out in Kajaani, to make space for the new datacenters.

🌱 How are citizens responding?

In response to Google's announced investment, a citizens’ initiative called “Datakeskukset kuriin” (or “Rein in the data centres”) was launched on 15 September 2026. It is “calling for tighter legislative control” for datacenters in Finland and requests “the government to set conditions on how data centres connect to Finland's electricity grid and operate their business”. The initiative also “calls for the introduction of a separate data centre fee”. According to the initiative, this fee should be based on the “environmental harm caused by operations and the resources used (including electricity, water, land use)”. The citizens’ initiative notably “reached the required 50,000 signatures within three days of starting” and it will hence be debated in the Finnish parliament.