Google’s latest expansion of its data center complex in Hamina has been approved.
The Regional State Administrative Agency (AVI) of Southern Finland has green-lighted the environmental permit and operating license for the sixth data centre within the complex.
The company says the new data center will be up and running in 2021. At the moment it is carrying out installation and testing work at the site.
Google plans to hire approximately 50 new employees, bringing the workforce to around 400.
There are 1.200 people working on construction of the new data center, a number that is expected to grow to 1.400.
From paper mill to wind-powered data center
In March 2009, Google purchased the Summa Mill from the Finnish paper company Stora Enso in order to convert it to a data center.
In the first phase of the project, which was completed in September 2011, Google invested an initial €200 million. During this phase, more than 2,000 individuals from 50 different companies contributed to the project, including many local Finnish companies.
The company pledged to invest 2 billion euros in Hamina and claims it supports roughly 4.300 jobs in Finland.
The data center complex is powered by electricity from three new wind farms.
