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> As part of the deal, Google signed a 22-year contract with Finnish utility Fortum to buy up to 50% of the output from the Loviisa nuclear power plant. > Finl

by wxw 6d ago

> As part of the deal, Google signed a 22-year contract with Finnish utility Fortum to buy up to 50% of the output from the Loviisa nuclear power plant. > Finland has emerged as an attractive location for data centres because of its cool climate, plentiful low-carbon electricity and relatively uncongested power grid.

epistasis 6d ago
I hope the data center's waste heat can be used for some form of district heating! Finland has pretty great municipal infrastructure, but I don't know enough about its heating systems.
- trhway 6d ago
  >the data center's waste heat One can imagine the saunas the guys will have there :) On the main point - there are persistent leaks/rumors that one of the main points of the Trump's envoys (Kushner and Witkoff) to Putin is building data centers in Karelia ( the Russian side of Finland border) - the same reasons of cheap electricity and plentiful of cool water.
- luqtas 6d ago
  there are some papers about communal gardens heated by data centers... since they don't produce as much there, hope it also paves the way for developing indoor agriculture
  - trhway 6d ago
    For those regions green house and barn heating is a major cost (to the point that Norway for example subsidizes barn heating for dairy farmers), while pretty much all the energy consumed by a datacenter goes straight to heat without any meaningful work (in thermodynamic sense) done, so it sounds like a good match.
- motionlessveloc 6d ago
  Google already does this at their existing Hamina data center. The building is also a repurposed paper mill. https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-globe/google-europe/our-first-offsite-heat-recovery-project-lands-in-finland/ https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-gl...
- lrasinen 6d ago
  The new planned datacenters aren't near major population centers, so potential for district heating might be limited. Eyeballing from the map one of them is about has about 25 km from Oulu (pop 200k), and another is 30 km from Kajaani (30k). But that's about it. Edit: I was wrong, the locations do have small (5-10 MW) district heating networks.
- tovej 5d ago
  The city of Kajaani's district heating (northern Finland) is already completely covered by datacenter waste heat from CSC datacenters (and maybe some other ones).
- Hamuko 5d ago
  Microsoft's data centre in Espoo is used for district heating. >When the Microsoft datacenter areas are finalized and the waste heat offtake is working fully, the heat from fossil-free fuels will cover 40% of all district heating in Espoo.
chardz 6d ago
Relatively uncongested…for now
jbverschoor 6d ago
Up to 50%

by wxw 6d ago

epistasis 6d ago

I hope the data center's waste heat can be used for some form of district heating! Finland has pretty great municipal infrastructure, but I don't know enough about its heating systems.

trhway 6d ago
>the data center's waste heat One can imagine the saunas the guys will have there :) On the main point - there are persistent leaks/rumors that one of the main points of the Trump's envoys (Kushner and Witkoff) to Putin is building data centers in Karelia ( the Russian side of Finland border) - the same reasons of cheap electricity and plentiful of cool water.
luqtas 6d ago
there are some papers about communal gardens heated by data centers... since they don't produce as much there, hope it also paves the way for developing indoor agriculture
- trhway 6d ago
  For those regions green house and barn heating is a major cost (to the point that Norway for example subsidizes barn heating for dairy farmers), while pretty much all the energy consumed by a datacenter goes straight to heat without any meaningful work (in thermodynamic sense) done, so it sounds like a good match.
motionlessveloc 6d ago
Google already does this at their existing Hamina data center. The building is also a repurposed paper mill. https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-globe/google-europe/our-first-offsite-heat-recovery-project-lands-in-finland/ https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-gl...
lrasinen 6d ago
The new planned datacenters aren't near major population centers, so potential for district heating might be limited. Eyeballing from the map one of them is about has about 25 km from Oulu (pop 200k), and another is 30 km from Kajaani (30k). But that's about it. Edit: I was wrong, the locations do have small (5-10 MW) district heating networks.
tovej 5d ago
The city of Kajaani's district heating (northern Finland) is already completely covered by datacenter waste heat from CSC datacenters (and maybe some other ones).
Hamuko 5d ago
Microsoft's data centre in Espoo is used for district heating. >When the Microsoft datacenter areas are finalized and the waste heat offtake is working fully, the heat from fossil-free fuels will cover 40% of all district heating in Espoo.

chardz 6d ago

Relatively uncongested…for now

jbverschoor 6d ago

Up to 50%