Finland: the environmental authority orders Google to suspend construction work on two data centres

In Muhos and Kajaani, land clearing and earthworks must be halted by 23 October, whilst the environmental impact assessments are being completed.

Finland's Licensing and Supervision Agency (LVV) has notified Google subsidiary Tuike Finland Oy of an order to halt work on two planned data centers in Muhos and Kajaani by October 23 until environmental impact assessments are completed. The move comes a month after Google announced a $15 billion investment in the country's AI infrastructure by 2028, its largest in Europe.

The suspension targets operations that permanently modify the land: felling trees, stripping soil, excavation, extraction and crushing, moving soil, digging ditches, creating roads and storage areas. Surveys, measurements and soundings, which are easily reversible, remain authorized. For the agency's environmental manager, Tommi Muilu, this work transforms the environment in a way that the impact study procedure is precisely intended to assess upstream.

Google acknowledges that it has not lived up to its own demands, while claiming to have acted in good faith within the framework of the forest law, conducted naturalistic inventories and protected areas of high ecological value; the company promises to replant 130 hectares in Muhos. Rich in land and electricity, Finland, sometimes nicknamed the "Texas of Europe", attracts many data center projects of several hundred megawatts.