Google expands Hamina data centre in 13-billion-euro Finland investment

Google plans to use part of its at least 13-billion-euro investment in Finland over the next two years to expand its data centre in Hamina, Yle reports. The investment is among the largest in Finland’s history and the company’s largest ever in Europe.

Google bought the former Summan paper mill and part of its industrial site from Stora Enso for about 40 million euros in 2009, a year after the mill closed. The Hamina data centre began operating in 2011 and has since been expanded several times.

The centre initially employed about 50 people, according to former Hamina mayor Hannu Muhonen. It now has around 500 employees, he said.

Google and the Kotka-Hamina regional education consortium Ekami have also agreed to launch training for data centre specialists. The programme will be held at Ekami’s campus in Hamina.

“The closure of the mill was a huge blow. It was great that we got a giant in its field to replace it,” Muhonen said.

He described Google’s latest investment as particularly good news for southeastern Finland, where the situation has deteriorated largely because of Russia’s actions. He said the decision by a major American company to invest near Finland’s eastern border had significant symbolic importance.

Google plans to build additional data centres in Muhos, Vaala and Kajaani. Muhonen said Hamina showed that Google was a good and reliable company.

Hamina Mayor Ilari Soosalu said the company had had a positive effect on the city. Technological development, digitalisation and artificial intelligence had brought confidence in the future, he said, describing Hamina as “a small city of world-class standing”.

According to Soosalu, cooperation between Hamina and Google had gone well since the data centre was still in the planning and permitting phase. He said the company had reportedly been partly encouraged to make further investments because Hamina had handled matters well.

Soosalu did not speculate on how much of Google’s investment would go to Hamina. He said the city’s expectations were positive but that the distribution would become clear over time.

The investment has also drawn criticism and concern in Finland. Sakari Lähdemäki, a senior researcher at the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, has urged caution over estimates of the investment’s impact on Finland’s gross domestic product and employment.

The Ministry of Finance estimated on Thursday that around 20 to 30 per cent of Google’s investment would go towards production in Finland. That would amount to approximately 2.6 to 3.9 billion euros.

Data centres’ electricity and water consumption has also raised concerns. More than 100 members of parliament signed a legislative initiative in June calling for data centres to cover their electricity consumption by building or purchasing new electricity generation in Finland.

Environment and Climate Minister Sari Multala said on Yle’s A-studio programme on Wednesday that Google would bring more electricity to Finland than its data centres would consume.