Finland has quickly risen to the top of Europe’s most attractive data centre locations. A few years ago, the conversation was about individual projects. Today it is about billions in investments, competing hyperscalers, and municipalities that have noticed – some quicker than others – that this is a game worth playing.
At the same time, the decisions involved have become increasingly complex. On the siting side, the outcome turns on grid connection availability, zoning timelines, cooling options, waste heat utilisation, predictability of permitting and the characteristics of local decision-making. On the financing side, a single hyperscale project can run into hundreds of millions, and around it sits the need for supporting infra, power generation, transmission capacity and grid connections – whose financing falls on municipalities and energy companies, often at a point where balance sheets have little headroom. In project financing, these energy infrastructure considerations play as significant role as the data centre investment itself.
Structural and operational bottlenecks exist between municipalities, project developers and financiers. Municipalities have land and infrastructure, but few have a direct visibility to operators’ investment criteria. Operators have the criteria and the capital, but screening municipalities and understanding the local playing field is heavy work. Both sides face strategic decisions that tie the parties in for decades. Beyond siting, the financing questions involve considerable coordination project by project: securing investments requires clarity on costs, an appropriate corporate and capital structure, and the impact and risks of market shifts.
Where are we now – and how can Spring help?
At Spring Advisor, regional energy infrastructure, industrial siting, as well as technical and financial advisory in the energy and infrastructure sector are established areas of expertise. Spring’s experts have completed numerous strategy engagements, siting studies, transactions and corporate finance engagements that have built our view of where the market and its rules are moving, and of how data centres fit into the wider picture. Our service offering covers full range of perspectives and supports all parties involved in data centre investments:
