Tech giant Google has made a €450 million investment into their datacenter in eastern coastal city of Hamina, Finland.
The company has announced the current datacenter is to triple in size. This means it will provide work for over 800 Finnish engineers and construction workers, as well as being a motor to reinvigorate the sleepy industrial region surrounding it.
“With our financial support, the prestigious Aalto University and the regional development agency Cursor are working to bolster promising startups and to improve the use of the internet by local small and medium sized industries”, Said William Echikson, head of community relations, Europe.
Google purchased the former paper mill in Hamina back in 2009 and turned it into a datacenter, which started operating in September 2011. Since then it has become the largest and most advanced datacenters in the Nordic countries.
Even though Google’s data center manager Dieter Kern praises the infrastructure and the warm welcome the company has received, the reasons behind Google’s €800 million investments in Finland are more geographical than social ones. Water generated electricity, the cool climate and the cold seawater of the gulf of Finland greatly reduce the cost of cooling the datacenter constantly requires.
For once we can say hooray for our long winter.
