Make compromises: Google recently announced a significant expansion of its data center space in Finland. The US company wants to invest billions in the new infrastructure, but is apparently moving a little too quickly with its forest clearing plans. Regulators are now investigating the matter, and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences for the broader market.
Google was apparently so eager to build its new data center infrastructure in Finland that it began clearing large areas of forest before the required environmental review of the entire plan was completed. Work could now be suspended, just as other major data center projects in the US and elsewhere around the world are delayed.
The issue arose last month when the Finnish Licensing and Regulatory Authority (Lupaja valvontavirasto or LVV) asked Tuike Finland Oy (TFO) for an explanation of its actions. TFO is Google’s local company for the Finnish data center project, for which Mountain View is investing €13 billion in new AI-focused infrastructure.
In theory, TFO is intended to operate in an environmentally friendly manner and take specific measures for energy sustainability, job creation and support of the local environment. Public reports cited by LVV suggest that around 300 hectares of Finnish forest, about 420 football fields, had already been cleared before the project’s environmental impact could be properly assessed.
Google argues that the forest clearing was fully in line with Finnish laws and regulations. The site was properly surveyed before the bulldozers moved in so that no high-value environmental areas were damaged, it said. According to Hanna Halmeenpää, chairwoman of the Finnish Nature Conservation Association, things aren’t going quite as Google describes.
Halmeenpää said satellite images showed that areas that should have been protected had already been leveled. Beyond the loss of so many forests, the result could have devastating consequences for species conservation. She is calling on the LVV to stop the entire construction site so that authorities can determine whether Google tried to cut down the forest without first obtaining formal permission.
When it comes to environmental protection standards, Finland is one of the highest rated countries in the world. Large data center expansions like the one TFO is pursuing incur significant environmental costs, both in terms of physical space use and power requirements.
While Google is moving faster than local environmental regulators, communities are increasingly expressing dissatisfaction with Big Tech’s unbridled expansion of its AI data center plans. Most likely, sending chips into space will not alleviate the distrust of AI infrastructure that these megacorporations are busily fomenting there.
