Data centres have become the new boost in the building sector now that the outlook for the sector has for quite some time been bleak. The projects are large in scale, they progress swiftly and provide a significant number of employment opportunities to builders. At the same time, they raise questions about whether the investments are a possibility or a threat to Finland.
The primary issue is related to electricity consumption. The power demand of the existing data centres is still moderate considering the Finnish electricity system, but the connection inquiries for new projects are enormous in scale. All plans cannot be implemented quickly and usually data centres are constructed in stages over several years or decades.
From the environmental point of view, data centres are not implicitly green investments. Despite the lack of direct emissions from their operation, the overall impact depends on the production structure of electricity and the utilisation of waste heat. In Finland, only a small part of the waste heat generated by data centres is utilised at present due to restrictions resulting from the location and capacity of the district heating networks.
As a whole, data centres are no different to other industrial investments: they increase building activity, provide digital services and have the potential to strengthen Finland’s position in the international infrastructure. To maximise the benefits, however, electricity production, the demand for baseload power and the effective utilisation of waste heat must be incorporated in their planning.
Jussi Mattila, Managing Director, Association of Concrete Industry in Finland
