How Google Warms Up a Finnish Town

n 2009, Google purchased a paper mill in Hamina, Finland, and converted it into a data center with an investment of $213 million. Since opening in 2011, it’s invested much more in the facility, the latest being a $1 billion expansion announced in May that in part will support its growing AI business in Europe.

Locations in Northern Europe have long been attractive for their cooler temperatures and widespread use of renewable energy. The Hamina data center uses 97% carbon-neutral energy.

Among other locations in Europe, Google operates a data center in Denmark and is building one in Norway. But there is more to the story of the Hamina facility, which uses seawater from the Gulf of Finland to cool the center. Google is now embarking on a plan with Haminan Energia on a heat recovery project whereby heat generated by the center’s servers will be directed to homes and other consumers in the local community. When fully operational, the project will supply 80% of the area’s heat requirements.

“When we started in 2011, the challenge was to cool down the servers, and we found a creative solution in seawater,” says Olavi Kemppi, Google’s data center operational manager, in a company presentation explaining the project. “Data centers create a significant amount of heat as a byproduct. At Hamina we have been recovering heat for almost a decade now, but we wanted to do more.”

Microsoft is doing the same elsewhere in Finland, directing data center heat to the cities of Espoo and Kauniainen. A similar project from Amazon channels heat to the community in Dublin, Ireland. Apple and Facebook data centers in Denmark also supply district heating to communities.

“We’ve long wanted to channel our recovered heat offsite for use by the local community,” adds Jukka Vainonen, Google’s site operations manager. “After years of extensive work, we are finally able to make our dream a reality right here in Hamina. But Hamina is only the start. Heat recovery is a major opportunity for energy conservation and transition, and Google is working to make it a reality in our data centers worldwide.”