The order
Finland’s Licensing and Supervision Authority, the LVV, ordered on 6 October that preparatory work at two planned Google data centre sites in northern Finland be suspended until the legally required environmental impact assessments are finished.
The order names Tuike Finland Oy, the company carrying out the projects at Muhos and Kajaani, and tells it to stop immediately and in any case no later than 23 October all preparatory measures that would significantly alter the environment. Tommi Muilu, who heads the authority’s environment department, said trees had been removed, topsoil stripped and ditches altered.
Tuike Finland has until 14 October to explain itself and set out what it plans to do next. The authority said failure to comply could lead to enforcement proceedings.
What was cleared
The authority is examining whether hundreds of hectares of forest were felled before the assessment that Finnish law requires. Hanna Halmeenpää, who chairs the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, said more than 300 hectares had been logged, including sites she described as ones that should have been preserved.
The assessments for both projects are still running and are expected to finish later this year. That is the part worth holding onto: the procedure was in progress, and the ground was cleared anyway.
Google’s response
Google spokesman Sondre Ronander said the company would study the authority’s findings and follow its guidance, and acknowledged that it had fallen short. He said Google was advancing landscaping and biodiversity plans, including tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos.
Finland’s environment minister, Sari Multala, said the projects are likely to be delayed by the problems with the assessments.
The size of what is at stake
Google announced a €13 billion investment in Finnish digital infrastructure in September, covering the next two years. The company already runs a data centre at Hamina and has a further project at Vaala, where the environmental assessment programme was submitted at the start of October.
Finland has spent a decade selling itself to data centre operators on cold air, cheap clean power and a stable grid. Those arguments are about operating a building. The arguments now being had are about clearing the site for one, and they are the arguments the Nordic countries have mostly not had to have yet.
What to watch
Three dates. Whether Tuike Finland files its explanation by 14 October. Whether work is actually stopped by 23 October, and what the authority does if it is not. And whether the environmental assessments, when they land, conclude anything that the clearing has already made moot — which is the question that makes sequencing a legal matter rather than a procedural one.
