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Last Updated on 24th June 2024
Google has announced a significant investment of USD 1.1 billion to expand its main data center in Finland. This move is part of Google's strategic plan to drive Europe's artificial intelligence (AI) business growth. The data center in Hamina on Finland's south coast is known for its easy access to green energy.
The Nordic region, including Finland, is a preferred location for many data centers due to its cooler climate, tax incentives, and abundant availability of renewable power. Finland's wind power capacity has increased by 75% to 5,677 megawatts in 2022 alone. This rapid growth has led to a surplus of renewable power, making it an ideal location to build data center infrastructure.
The expansion of the data center is expected to increase staffing by a quarter to 500 people this year and next. However, Google has not disclosed the impact this investment will have on the data capacity at the site.
In addition to expanding its data center, Google is also pioneering a project with the local utility to feed excess heat into the network of pipes used to warm up homes in the area. This technology, known as district heating, is common in parts of northern Europe.
Google's commitment to sustainability is evident in its target to run every office and data center on green energy by the end of this decade. It aims to achieve net-zero emissions across all of its operations and value chains by 2030.
One of the key reasons behind this investment decision is the rapid growth in AI usage, which is expected to significantly increase data center power consumption. Google's Hamina data center already operates with 97% carbon-free energy.
This investment in Finland is not an isolated move. Last month, Google announced plans to build new data centers in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Read: Google Announces Plans to Invest $3 Billion to Develop Data Centers in USA
Google’s Hamina Data Center, located in Finland, is a testament to the company’s commitment to sustainability and technological innovation. This data center, which was once a paper mill, has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility that is at the forefront of Google’s ambition to run its business entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030.
In March 2009, Google purchased the Summa Mill from the Finnish paper company Stora Enso with the aim of converting it into a data center. The project's first phase was completed in September 2011, with an initial investment of USD 217 million. Since 2009, Google has invested USD 2 billion in developing the data center infrastructure.
One of the standout features of the Hamina data center is its innovative cooling system. Unlike traditional data centers that rely heavily on air conditioning for cooling, the Hamina data center uses seawater from the Bay of Finland. This unique approach significantly reduces energy use and is a prime example of Google’s commitment to sustainability.
The cold seawater is pumped from the sea and transported inside underground granite tunnels, originally built and used by the paper mill, to the data center’s cooling system. The water flows back toward the sea after removing the computer's heat. By the time it reaches the sea, the water temperature has dropped close to the original temperature of the sea.
The Hamina data center boasts a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.092, which is significantly lower than the global average of 1.572. PUE is a metric used to determine a data center’s energy efficiency. It is the ratio of the total energy a data center uses to the energy delivered to the computing equipment.
Read: Microsoft Launches the First Hyper-scale Data Center Region in Mexico
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