Finland orders Google to halt data center builds — SkimNews
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) ordered Google to suspend all "preparatory measures that significantly change the environment" at the Muhos and Kajaani sites by 23 October after the company cleared forests before completing required environmental impact assessments.
- Tuike Finland Oy, Google's local representative, felled 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest in Muhos and logged nearly 200 hectares in Kajaani as part of a €13bn (£11bn) multi-site Finnish project before its EIA was finished.
- The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation called the cleared Muhos site "not a forest any more. It is a sand area," and said the pattern across the two sites was a "systemic problem" driven by an "overheated" data center market overwhelming small municipalities.
- Google said it "understand the concerns" and had "fallen short of our own high standards," but maintained it "acted in good faith under the Forestry Act" and committed to tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos.
- LVV warned it would consider enforcement proceedings and a fine if Google does not comply, with the company given until the following Wednesday to submit a written explanation.
- Tommi Muilu, head of LVV's environmental department, said the preparatory work "will change the environment and cause impacts, the identification and assessment of which are among the key objectives of the EIA procedure."
Why it matters: The LVV's 23 October deadline and threatened enforcement proceedings put a €13bn Finnish data center project at risk of fines and delays, and one conservationist's warning of a "systemic problem" suggests regulators are losing patience with pre-EIA land clearing across the Nordic data center boom — where the construction rush is overwhelming small municipalities that lack the expertise to police it.
Ask SkimNews
