Data Centers Are Now Bankrolling Finland's New Power Supply

By Rystad Energy - Oct 07, 2026, 12:00 PM CDT Google's 507 MW, 22-year deal with Fortum at Loviisa is the largest PPA ever signed in Finland and the country's first for nuclear, backing a plant that supplies 10% of its electricity. Finnish data center capacity is forecast to climb from 0.8 GW in 2026 to 5 GW by 2035, with data centers using about 15% of national power by 2030. Grid access may become the real bottleneck as Finland weighs scrapping its first-come, first-served connection queue in favor of local, firm supply outside the congested south. Data centers have become the main financier of new Finnish power capacity. Contracting is shifting from renewable volume to sources that provide baseload supply, as seen in Google's 507-megawatt (MW) agreement with Fortum at Loviisa. The deal is Finland's first nuclear power purchase agreement (PPA), and its 22-year tenor keeps a plant that supplies 10% of the country's electricity from retiring in 2030. Rystad Energy expects the next wave of Finnish offtake to follow the same logic, pairing wind and solar with battery energy storage systems (BESS) to deliver a more baseload-like profile. A market built on data center demand Finland is expected to become Europe's fifth-largest data center market by 2035, with installed capacity rising from 0.8 gigawatts (GW) in 2026 to 5 GW in 2035. By 2030, data centers could account for about 15% of national power consumption, making them the leading source of new demand. Cheap onshore wind, a strong grid, low energy emissions and a cold climate that reduces cooling loads make the country an attractive location.Contracting shifts toward data centers Data centers have overtaken manufacturing and industrial companies as the largest buyers of power in Finland, and the gap has widened quickly. At 507 MW, Loviisa is the largest single PPA signed in the country, surpassing Amazon's 367 MW contract with OX2 for the Rajamäenkylä wind project. The 22-year tenor is more than double that of the onshore wind and solar PPAs among the top deals of 2025 and 2026. Batteries enable firmer supply Onshore wind is expected to drive Finland's renewables expansion through 2035. High shares of wind and solar have caused many negative power price hours, but battery capacity is expanding quickly. That should enable hybrid PPAs pairing renewable and battery offtake, delivering the uptime data center operators require. Grid access may become the tighter constraint Finland has proposed replacing its first-come, first-served grid connection queue with a priority procedure, which could affect both data center and battery developers. The proposal favors newly built, local and firm supply, and would reward developers that pair their load with dispatchable capacity outside congested southern Finland. By Rystad EnergyMore Top Reads From Oilprice.comAustralia's High Court Blocks Major Coal Mine Expansion Over EmissionsQatarEnergy Secures $3 Billion Loan From Chinese Banks as LNG Exports StallRubio Warns Russia and China Are Already Moving in the Arctic Download The Free Oilprice App Today Back to homepage