Initiative overview
Finland has prepared a national roadmap for data centres through a government‑appointed rapporteur to inform policy‑making related to the data economy, digitalisation and advanced computing. The report recognises that the rapid expansion of cloud services and artificial intelligence is driving sustained growth in demand for data‑centre capacity, as AI models are increasingly trained and operated in data‑centre environments. As a result, the roadmap treats data centres—and the AI workloads they host—as infrastructure that must be planned in close coordination with the electricity system.
The roadmap explicitly links data‑centre siting to the capacity and resilience of the electricity grid, emphasising that large computing facilities place continuous and significant demands on power generation and transmission. It proposes that data‑centre investments should be attracted to locations where grid capacity can support additional load and where renewable, fossil‑free electricity can be secured through long‑term contracts. Wind power and the expansion of clean generation are identified as important elements in supporting future data‑centre growth.
In addition, the report highlights energy efficiency and system integration as key considerations. It emphasises the reuse of waste heat from data centres—such as integration with district heating networks—as a way to increase the overall efficiency and local value added of data‑centre operations. These factors are presented as criteria for encouraging data centres with higher value added rather than purely capacity‑driven investment.
The roadmap also addresses the implications of AI‑driven growth for grid stability. It notes that rapid expansion of data‑centre capacity could increase price volatility or strain the power system if large users do not contribute to system balancing. As a result, the report proposes that data centres should play a role in demand‑side flexibility, helping to stabilise the electricity system alongside other large industrial users. While current flexibility options are limited, the roadmap identifies stronger flexibility mechanisms and energy‑system integration as necessary to support continued growth in AI‑ and data‑intensive computing in Finland.
