Google buys 22 years of Finnish nuclear output to get four data centres onto the grid

In a site selection deck, the power line used to read "available, subject to connection". In the Nordics that line now needs a named counterparty and a fixed term, a different document going to a different committee than the one that used to sign off on power. Google is contracting generation for buildings that open in 2027 and 2028 ^[1], and the wind it named is new-to-grid rather than existing supply reallocated ^[4]. thenextweb.com reads the Fortum agreement as a condition of entry rather than a climate posture, and points to Denmark pausing new connections outright after finding that Europe's cleanest grid could not absorb the demand ^[8], plus a year of EU messaging asking households to move their electricity use around the load ^[9].

The economics deserve a slower read than the headline number gets. Spread over two years, 13bn euros is 6.5bn a year ^[1]. Against that, the claimed 3.6bn euros of annual Finnish GDP during construction ^[10] is about 55 percent of the annual spend ^[2]. The jobs figure breaks down into 16,000 in construction and 7,000 continuing, out of more than 37,000 supported ^[11], which leaves roughly 14,000 in the category nobody audits two years later ^[4]. Per permanent job, 13bn euros buys 7,000 of them, about 1.9m euros of capital each ^[3]. That level of capital intensity is simply what a data centre is, and it only misleads someone who reads 37,000 and stops there.

Google published 629MW of nameplate onshore wind through Valorem and Suomen Hyotytuuli ^[4] and a 94MW battery near Kajaani from late 2027 ^[5], and no figure at all for what the four sites will draw ^[6]. That is the checkable part and the gap in one line: nameplate wind is not delivered energy, and the 94MW battery figure is a power rating with no stated duration attached. Without the load number, thenextweb.com notes, nobody outside the company can tell whether the new capacity covers the new demand or merely softens it ^[6].

The nuclear piece carries the exposure. A 22-year offtake supporting Loviisa, which currently supplies about 10 percent of Finland's electricity ^[3], attaches Alphabet to the operating economics of a reactor built in the 1970s ^[12] for longer than most data centres stay economically current ^[13]. The publisher's read is unsentimental: extending an existing plant is faster than building one, and much faster than waiting for small modular reactors ^[14].

Grid access has not replaced land as the constraint, on this evidence. thenextweb.com puts nearly two-thirds of Europe's new capacity outside Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin, and attributes that to grid queues and land constraints together ^[15]. What changed is the assumption sitting underneath the connection, and the queue in Finland is already filling: TikTok is building a second site there for 1bn euros ^[16] and Nebius has been tripling its Nvidia capacity in the country ^[17].

For anyone taking a site to approval, that reduces to two questions. Can you state the load in megawatts, and can you name the counterparty and term of the firm power behind it? Answering both gets you an energy plan. Answering only the second gets you what Google published, a document that works when you can write a 22-year offtake and does not work when you cannot.