Helsinki weighs data centres as residents oppose forest plan
Sunday 18th October 2026 on 18:45 in
Finland
Helsinki is considering plans for two to three new data centres, while most respondents to a city survey opposed a proposed centre in the Heikinlaakso forest. Yle reported that the city’s executive board will review guidelines for the projects on Monday.
The board postponed consideration of the guidelines over the summer. It is now set to examine the resilience of the energy system, electricity availability and ways to limit effects on nature and the environment.
Potential locations include Heikinlaakso, Salmisaari, Malmi, Myllypuro and Östersundom. A development reservation has already been sought for a data centre in Heikinlaakso, in the Suurmetsä district. The planned site covers about 7.3 hectares between Kääpätie and the Lahti motorway, and the building could reach 30 metres in height.
More than 800 people responded to the city’s public survey, and most opposed the proposal, citing the loss of nearby nature and increased electricity use.
Data centres require large amounts of electricity, and their operation raises electricity prices. A proposal before the board says Finland’s transmission grid operator, Fingrid, expects the grid to have limited capacity for new investments in the coming years. The situation is expected to improve towards the end of the 2020s, when Fingrid’s investments will double connection capacity. Projects will not receive a grid connection agreement if sufficient transmission capacity is unavailable.
Helsinki’s electricity consumption is expected to rise sharply in the coming years, potentially doubling by 2030 compared with 2024. The city attributes the increase to the electrification of heating and transport, port operations and data centres.
The city says data centres would bring private investment and economic returns, as well as waste heat that could be used to heat homes. Helsinki aims to make use of about 350 megawatt-hours of heat by 2035 and about 500 megawatt-hours by 2040. The city says this would support its goal of ending energy production based on combustion by 2040. Waste heat could replace heat produced using oil, natural gas and biomass, freeing up electricity transmission and generation capacity for other uses.
Helsinki says data centres are needed to support digital services, cloud technology and data processing. As the volume of data grows, so does global demand for new facilities.