Finland orders Google to halt datacentre work over missing environmental assessments

Finland orders work to stop

Finland's Licensing and Supervision Authority (LVV) has ordered Google to suspend preparatory work at two planned datacentre sites in the north of the country, according to The Guardian. The notice, issued on Tuesday and reported on 6 October, requires the company to halt "preparatory measures that significantly change the environment" at Muhos and Kajaani by 23 October at the latest, and to keep them suspended until environmental impact assessments (EIA) for the sites are completed.

The two sites are part of a €13bn (£11bn) multi-location buildout across northern Finland, which Google is pursuing amid heavy demand for space to house online infrastructure. The company is represented locally by Tuike Finland Oy, the entity named in the regulator's notice.

What was cleared before the assessment

According to The Guardian, Tuike Finland Oy felled 330 hectares (815 acres) of forest at Muhos without a completed EIA, and has logged just under 200 hectares (494 acres) at Kajaani. LVV said Google had pressed ahead with "extensive preparatory measures" — removing trees, stripping topsoil and constructing site roads — while the assessment process was still underway.

Tommi Muilu, head of LVV's environmental department, said the regulator's view is that these measures change the environment and cause impacts whose identification and assessment are among the central objectives of the EIA procedure.

The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, which raised the alarm over the sites, said Muhos had effectively been reduced to sand. Its chief operating officer, Tapani Veistola, described the lapses at two separate sites as a "systemic problem", attributing them to an overheated datacentre market that pushes companies to speed up their processes while small municipalities lack the expertise to supervise them.

Google's response

In a statement reported by The Guardian, Google said it understands the concerns and acknowledged it had "fallen short of our own high standards". The company said it acted in good faith under the Forestry Act, ran nature surveys and put measures in place to protect high-value areas. It added that it will study LVV's findings and follow the regulator's guidance, and that its long-term work in the region includes landscaping and biodiversity plans such as tree planting across 130 hectares (321 acres) at Muhos.

What happens next

Google has been given until the following Wednesday to submit a written explanation to LVV. The EIA process is ongoing and is expected to be completed later this year. If the company does not comply with the suspension order, LVV said it would consider enforcement proceedings and a fine.

Why it matters

A stop-work order on a €13bn programme is a meaningful regulatory setback for Google even if it proves temporary. Site preparation is the first physical step of a datacentre build, and restarting it now depends on completing an assessment process the company moved ahead of.

The case also carries a signal for the wider industry. Finland has attracted large-scale datacentre investment, and the conservation group's diagnosis — a market so overheated that companies accelerate processes beyond what small municipalities can oversee — suggests Muhos and Kajaani may not be isolated cases.

For cloud and AI infrastructure builders, the episode underlines that environmental review in Europe is not a formality that can run in parallel with construction. Skipping it invites suspension orders, potential fines and reputational cost. For local authorities, it exposes a supervision gap that national regulators may increasingly be called on to fill as datacentre demand keeps rising.