Finland orders Google to suspend preparatory work at two data-centre sites

Finnish authorities have ordered Google to halt preparatory work at two planned data-centre sites after determining that extensive changes to the land had begun before the required environmental impact assessment was completed. The order applies to projects in Muhos and Kajaani, in northern Finland, and requires work to stop by 23 October at the latest. The Finnish Licensing and Supervision Authority, known as LVV, said the measures included removing trees and topsoil, building access roads and storage areas, and altering ditches.

It said those activities significantly changed the environment and were precisely the kind of effects that the assessment process was intended to identify and evaluate. The authority has asked Tuike Finland Oy, the company representing Google’s projects, to provide a written explanation. The reports give two deadlines connected with that process: The Guardian says Google has until the following Wednesday to respond, while the BBC reports that the company must explain how it intends to proceed by 14 October.

LVV said enforcement proceedings and a fine could follow if its order is not obeyed. The environmental review is still under way and is expected to be completed later this year. The Guardian reports that approximately 330 hectares of forest had been cleared in Muhos without an assessment, while logging in Kajaani covered just under 200 hectares.

The BBC describes the clearance more generally as involving more than 300 hectares of forest, so the precise combined area is not presented consistently in the reports. Tommi Muilu, LVV’s head of environmental affairs, said the preparatory measures had altered the surroundings and created impacts whose identification and assessment were central to the environmental procedure. The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation criticised the work, with its representatives saying that protected or valuable natural areas had been felled and that the Muhos site had been reduced to a sandy area.

The conservation group attributed the situation partly to intense demand for data-centre capacity and what it called an overheated market. Its chief operating officer, Tapani Veistola, also pointed to a lack of expertise in small municipalities and described the problems at the two sites as potentially systemic. Those are the organisation’s assessments; the reports do not say that LVV has formally reached the same conclusion.

Google said it understood the concerns and had fallen short of its own high standards. The company maintained that it had acted in good faith under the Forestry Act, carried out nature surveys and introduced measures to protect areas of high environmental value. It said it would study LVV’s findings and follow the agency’s guidance, while pursuing biodiversity plans that include planting trees across 130 hectares at Muhos.

The sites form part of Google’s announced €13bn expansion in Finland, described by the BBC as the company’s largest single investment in Europe. The plans cover new facilities in Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala, as well as investment at an existing Hamina site. Google said the expansion would support growing demand for services including Search, Maps and Gemini, while its construction phase in 2027 and 2028 was expected to support more than 37,000 jobs.