Partner blog: A data centre does not stand alone
“Data centres accelerate investments in renewable energy and electricity grids. Seeing data centres merely as large electricity consumers and passive facilities that create little employment is too narrow a view,” says Ville Miettinen, Head of Sales at Enersense International, a partner company of Millennium Technology Prize.
“Most data centres are long-term investments, not one-off construction projects. From the perspective of an infrastructure company such as Enersense, they create work related to transmission lines, substations, telecommunications networks, and cooling and heat transfer solutions.
In cool Finland, data centre investments are heating up. Finland’s location, well-functioning infrastructure, stable society and business-friendly operating environment are attracting data centre operators to the country. Finland currently accounts for around ten per cent of Europe’s data centre capacity, which is a significant share in relation to its population.
Data centres are accelerating investment in Finland’s electricity system. They require a reliable supply of electricity, which is reflected in investments in power lines, renewable energy and batteries — solutions that Finland also needs to support economic growth and security of supply. Finland also has a stronger starting point than many other countries when it comes to increasing electricity production, as a large share of its electricity is generated with low emissions and the national grid is being developed with a long-term approach.
Data centres are built in phases
Although data centre projects are often announced with large figures attached, a typical data centre is built in phases. This means that its energy demand, investments and employment impacts are also spread over several years, rather than being limited to the first construction phase.
Establishing a data centre requires far more than a plot of land, walls and computing power. It requires permits, a grid connection, power lines, a substation and telecommunications connections. If these cannot be delivered quickly enough, the investment may remain only an aspiration.
A data centre also needs people after it has been completed. Continuous maintenance, development and equipment upgrades require experts from various fields, creating work and business opportunities. Data centre technology is constantly being updated, for example to improve computing power, energy efficiency, security or competitiveness. This too requires expertise — and Finland has that expertise to offer.
Data centres create new business in Finland
Data centres are essential for the operation and data processing of many critical applications and organisations, such as hospitals and authorities. We should therefore be highly interested in the kinds of expertise and solutions that are emerging around data centres in Finland. At best, the data centre boom could create entirely new business in Finland.
Domestic data centre projects could serve as excellent pilot and reference sites for Finnish technologies. This is why the data centre boom should also be viewed from the perspective of industrial policy: could we build new companies in Finland that develop the solutions data centres need here — and then scale globally alongside them?
A data centre does not stand alone. Around it, networks, expertise, services and, at best, entirely new Finnish business are built.”
Enersense is a partner company of the Millennium Technology Prize, awarded by Technology Academy Finland. Ville Miettinen is responsible for sales development at Enersense and is also helping to build Enersense’s data centre business. He is optimistic about Finland’s opportunities for economic growth and believes that technology has a key role to play in building new competitiveness and sustainable growth.
