Finland's Permit and Supervision Agency (Lupa- ja valvontavirasto, LVV) today called on Tuike Finland Oy, a Google subsidiary, to suspend land-altering preparatory work at two planned server centre projects in Muhos and Kajaani, immediately and no later than 23 October 2026, until the environmental impact assessments are complete.

In Short

A Finnish regulator told a Google company to pause tree felling, soil removal and road building at two future computing sites until a legally required environmental review is finished. The review is meant to come before big changes to the land, and the regulator believes about 330 hectares at Muhos and just under 200 hectares at Kajaani had already been prepared. The company has until 14 October to answer in writing and until 23 October at the latest to stop, and Google has said publicly that it will follow the agency's guidance. If the pause were ignored, the agency says it could issue a binding order backed by a conditional fine. Several details differ between the documents and the news coverage, and those differences are set out below.

According to LVV, the agency sent Tuike Finland Oy two separate documents on 6 October 2026, each headed "Kehotus ja kuuleminen" - a call to act combined with a hearing of the party concerned. The Muhos document carries diary number LVV-U/37128/2026; the Kajaani-Otanmäki document is numbered LVV-U/22159/2026. Both rest on section 32(2) of the Finnish EIA Act (252/2017), which gives LVV the task of guiding and supervising how the act is applied. The act implements EU Directive 2011/92/EU.

The scope is identical in both. According to the notices, no work may be carried out or continued that alters the natural state, landscape, terrain structure or water balance of the area, with tree removal, topsoil stripping, excavation, blasting and crushing, movement of earth masses, ditching, and the construction of site roads and storage areas listed as examples. Planning, measurements, soil investigations and other measures with minor, easily reversible effects fall outside the call. The suspension is to last until the EIA procedure has been completed and the authorities hold the liaison authority's reasoned conclusion on the project's environmental effects.

The legal form matters. A kehotus is not yet a binding order. According to both documents, if the call is not followed and work that counts as implementing the project continues, LVV may consider issuing an order under special legislation or under section 35 of the EIA Act, depending on whether the project needs a statutory permit. Such an order could be reinforced by a threat of a conditional fine under the Act on Conditional Fines (1113/1990). According to LVV's news release, published at 14.17 on 6 October, the agency aims first for voluntary correction, which is why the call was sent first. The BBC and Helsinki Times both describe the step as an order, and the BBC quotes the agency as saying measures that would "significantly alter the environment" must be suspended by 23 October.

Tommi Muilu, head of LVV's environmental department, said in the agency's statement, according to Helsinki Times: "Our assessment is that these measures change the environment and cause impacts whose identification and assessment are among the central objectives of the environmental impact assessment procedure."

What had been done on the ground

LVV asked Tuike Finland Oy, the Muhos municipality and the city of Kajaani, together with their building control authorities, for written clarifications on 18 September 2026. Tuike answered on 25 September. The two sites are of broadly similar size and design, but the figures reported to the agency differ.

Muhos

The Muhos project area covers about 571 hectares and is planned to hold nine data centre buildings with supporting facilities, including backup generators, cooling systems, substations and water treatment structures. According to the assessment programme described in the notice, cooling water would be taken from and returned to the Oulujoki river, and backup power capacity exceeds 300 MW, although the total is not stated in the programme.

Tuike told the agency that topsoil had been removed, site access roads and temporary storage areas prepared, ditches and culverts improved for stormwater management, stormwater retention basins built, and transport of fill material was under way. The felling and pre-preparation area covers about 330 hectares - roughly 58 per cent of the project area, by the figures in the notice.

Kajaani-Otanmäki

The Kajaani-Otanmäki site spans about 405 hectares and is planned for eight buildings, an electrical substation and a 400 kV overhead line leading to it. The project examines water intake from Lake Oulujärvi for cooling. Backup power again exceeds 300 MW, with no total given. Two Natura 2000 areas, Otannevan and Talaskankaan, may need an assessment under the Nature Conservation Act if project plans indicate possible significant effects. According to Tuike's reply, a Sweco expert carried out preliminary screening assessments at both areas in May 2026 and found no effect on them.

Tuike reported that stump and vegetation removal, including topsoil removal, had begun, and that preparation of storage areas and access roads, ditch and culvert improvements and construction of retention basins were in progress. The felling and pre-preparation area is just under 200 hectares, which is just under half of the site. LVV said it received information about the preparatory work at a site meeting on 27 August 2026 and through media reporting by Yle on 17 September 2026.

Tuike's position

Tuike told LVV that the measures had not required a permit under the guidance of the municipal building control authority, that the works began under section 109 of the Building Act (751/2023), which permits excavation, blasting, felling and similar preparation before building work starts, and that a forest use notification under the Forest Act had been filed for the felling. According to the company, valuable zones within the areas designated LUO 1 and LUO 2 are protected during forestry work, clearing in the LUO 3 and LUO 4 zones is selective, felling avoids the bird nesting season from April to July, and contractors were told to avoid crossing streams and ditches wherever possible.

On the baseline for the assessment, Tuike acknowledged that for ecology and watercourses the so-called VE0 alternative, which describes the situation if nothing is built, now differs from what was presented when the EIA procedure began. The company nonetheless maintains that VE0 remains appropriate, because the area started out as a site of very high environmental value, so the assessed impacts represent a worst-case scenario that ensures comprehensive mitigation is identified. Had the starting point been an already cleared area, the company argued, the project's potential effects would look smaller. It also pointed to public events and a steering group held at the programme stage.

How the agency answered

LVV was not persuaded that preparatory work can be separated from the project. The notices make several arguments, and they are nearly word for word the same in both documents.

First, the agency treats the area as unusually large and says there is at least enough uncertainty about the effects of completed and planned preparatory measures that the authority must secure the effective operation of the EIA procedure. Second, it describes large-scale topsoil removal, terrain reshaping, stormwater works and site infrastructure as changes comparable in practice to starting the project itself. Third, it says the measures are neither temporary nor easy to reverse, have already altered the area's natural state significantly, and may lead to permanent changes in soil, vegetation, landscape and water balance. Fourth, it says the measures anticipate the final outcome and narrow the room that an assessment is supposed to keep open for comparing implementation alternatives and preventing harm.

The notices also cite a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, case C-215/06, under which a project cannot be split into parts or carried out in stages in a way that undermines the practical effect of the assessment, and preparatory measures that are necessary for implementation and may have significant environmental effects must be assessed as part of the whole project.

On the building rules, LVV states that the municipal building control view that preparatory measures are possible without a building-law permit does not remove the developer's duty to comply with the EIA Act and does not limit LVV's supervisory competence. Building control applies building legislation; supervision under the EIA Act belongs, in this matter, to LVV.

Where the two notices differ

The notices are close to identical, but one passage diverges. The Muhos document states that the preparatory measures alone would require an EIA procedure under point 2 f of the project list in annex 1 of the EIA Act. The Kajaani document is more cautious, saying that an EIA procedure for the preparatory measures alone could be required through a case-by-case decision, given the project's scale and effects relative to the project type in the same point.

The BBC, for its part, reports that LVV said work at one site was carried out "without a mandatory environmental impact assessment". The notices themselves describe the EIA procedures at both sites as pending since summer 2025, with the assessment reports due at the end of 2026, so the dispute concerns the sequence of work and assessment rather than the absence of any assessment. The BBC does not say which site it means.

One clerical inconsistency also appears. The hearing instruction in the Kajaani notice asks Tuike to quote diary number LVV-U/37128/2026 in its reply - the number of the Muhos case - while the Kajaani notice itself is numbered LVV-U/22159/2026. The documents do not explain the difference.

Other open matters are listed at the end of each notice. A ditching notification is under processing, filed on 18 September at Muhos and on 29 September at Kajaani, and no assessment of the need for a Water Act permit has been made. LVV says it will ask for a separate report on the volume, quality and placement of soil masses removed and to be removed, and will decide on a possible environmental permit and further steps after that.

What the municipalities told the agency

The two building control authorities described different situations.

At Muhos, the municipality said on 28 September 2026 that it had granted no building permits under the Building Act and no other permits entitling the project to proceed. A landscape work permit application covering extensive earthworks and groundwork on several properties in the Pyhänsivu area was filed on 31 March 2026 and supplemented on 4 May. Building control asked LVV for an opinion on 20 April. LVV replied on 18 May that, with reference to sections 25 and 26 of the EIA Act, an authority is not to grant a permit for carrying out the project before the assessment report is complete and the liaison authority has issued its reasoned conclusion. Building control has not continued processing the application since. On 5 June 2026 it sent Tuike a written message saying preparatory measures under section 109 were possible, which the notice describes as neither a permit decision nor a permit. The municipality's own view is that starting construction of the buildings and structures requires building-law permits, and it says it would act against unpermitted measures that come to its attention.

At Kajaani, the building control authority reported on 23 September 2026 that Tuike had filed a building permit application on 17 May 2026 for one data centre, and that no permits under the Building Act had yet been granted. It had approved the preliminary works permitted before construction starts - topsoil stripping and stockpiling, roads and infrastructure, stormwater management, rock levelling by blasting, and crushing - and found them to be in line with the confirmed detailed plan and not in conflict with the draft EIA report. An environmental protection inspector made a favourable noise notification decision on the blasting and crushing on 6 August 2026, while an environmental permit for noise lasting more than 50 days is under processing. According to the building control report, felling was done under the forest use notification before the detailed plan was confirmed, immediate neighbours were informed and raised no objections, and no action was seen as necessary. LVV nonetheless issued its call to suspend the work.

Google's response and the dispute over wording

Google said it had "fallen short of our own high standards in this instance" and would follow the agency's guidance, according to the BBC. The company added that it had "acted in good faith under the Forestry Act", conducted nature surveys and put measures in place to protect areas of high environmental value, and said its landscaping and biodiversity plans include tree planting across 130 hectares at Muhos.

Helsinki Times quotes Sondre Ronander, Google's communications manager for Finland and Norway, in a company statement: "We understand the concern caused by the situation. In this case, we did not meet the high standards we set ourselves." The two outlets render the statement in different words, and the original text is not among the documents. Helsinki Times also writes that Google has since said it will comply and that this means enforcement "is not required at this stage". That is the newspaper's characterisation. The LVV release and both notices still ask Tuike to state whether it intends to comply, with a reply due by 14 October.

Opposition from conservationists predates the notices. According to the BBC, Hanna Halmeenpaa, chair of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, previously told the AFP news agency that "nature sites which should be preserved" had been felled, and the group had called for work to stop while the environmental requirements were examined. According to Helsinki Times, the association said in September that more than 300 hectares had been cleared at the planned site in Leppiniemi, Muhos, with permanent land-use conversion of that scale in its view needing an assessment first, and it raised concerns about the Otanmäki project in Kajaani as well.

The investment behind the sites

The Muhos and Kajaani land came from the Finnish state. According to a joint release from the Finnish Government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and Metsähallitus on 28 November 2024, the Council of State authorised Metsähallitus to sell four parcels in Muhos and Kajaani to Google. The total value of the sale exceeded €27 million and the combined area was about 1,400 hectares, mostly in forestry use. The land was sold as raw land. The release states that use for the planned purpose requires zoning, that Google would decide on future use within the limits of planning and permitting, and that Metsähallitus would not take part in project development. It adds that Google's Hamina data centre area employed an estimated 400 people full-time at the time. Antti Järvinen, Google's country manager for Finland, was quoted in Finnish saying that the company would work with local and national stakeholders before a final investment decision and that the sale was only a first step in a long process.

On 9 September 2026, Google said it would invest at least €13 billion in digital infrastructure in Finland over 2027 and 2028, covering Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala. The company called it "our largest single investment in Europe". According to Google's own estimates, the initial construction phase would support more than 37,000 jobs nationwide and add an annual average of €3.6 billion to Finland's GDP, with about 16,000 of the jobs in construction. Once operational, the facilities are projected to support 7,000 jobs a year. Google also committed €31 million over four years to community initiatives in the four municipalities.

The energy components are specific. According to Google, they include a 22-year power purchase agreement with Fortum to support a life extension programme at the Loviisa nuclear plant, a memorandum of understanding with Fortum on new capacity, further onshore wind agreements that bring the total new wind capacity it supports to 629 MW, and a 94 MW battery system near Kajaani expected to be operational in late 2027. Fingrid, Finland's grid operator, is quoted in Google's release as welcoming the northern locations because of grid capacity in a production-dominated region. The same release says Hamina belongs to Google's network of 43 cloud regions and enables Finnish organisations to deliver low-latency services.

The 9 September documents describe nature restoration plans on former forestry land next to the sites and state that any profits from selective tree harvesting would be donated to local initiatives. They do not mention EIA procedures or permits.

Why the story matters beyond Finland

Marketers and publishers rarely watch planning law, but compute capacity sits underneath the products they buy and optimise against. Google's own release ties the Finnish buildout to Search, Maps, Gemini and YouTube, and Search and YouTube are among the surfaces that carry its advertising. Alphabet's capital expenditure rose from $31bn in 2022 to $91bn in 2025, with guidance of $180-190bn for 2026, according to figures PPC Land reported when the company raised $85bn in equity in June 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, capital spending reached $35.7bn against revenue of $109.9bn. Each site that is delayed or redesigned therefore touches a very large spending line.

Timelines between land purchase and operation vary widely across Europe. Construction began at Horndal in Sweden on 2 June 2026 on land bought in 2017, with a permit from 2021. Groundbreaking at Kronstorf in Austria took place on 23 April 2026 on land acquired in late 2008, with permits approved in January 2026. In Finland, the state land sale was cleared in November 2024 and ground preparation was under way within two years, ahead of the end of the assessment. Whether the pause shifts the 2027-2028 schedule is not addressed in any of the documents.

Opposition has changed project outcomes elsewhere. Data Center Watch figures reported by PPC Land put $156bn of data centre projects in the United States as blocked or delayed by local opposition in 2025, and in Indianapolis Google withdrew a rezoning request for a $1bn, 468-acre project before a vote in September 2025. The Finnish case runs through a different channel: a supervisory authority applying EU-derived assessment rules, with no local vote involved.

Power is the other constraint. In the Netherlands, more than 11,900 businesses were waiting for grid connections in mid-2025, and Gartner projected that 40 per cent of AI data centres would be power-limited by 2027. Google's Finnish plan places new sites in the north because, according to the release, building in the north uses existing grid infrastructure near carbon-free energy sources. Other operators are committing capital in Europe too: Amazon announced €33.7bn for Spain on 2 March 2026. The Hamina cloud region, which opened in July 2018, is the existing anchor of Google's Finnish footprint.

What happens next

Tuike Finland Oy has until 14 October 2026 to submit a written explanation to LVV, preferably electronically to the agency's registry, and has been asked to state whether it intends to comply. Missing the deadline does not stop LVV from deciding the matter afterwards, according to the notices. The suspension itself must take effect immediately and no later than 23 October 2026, and remains in force until the EIA procedures are finished and the liaison authority's reasoned conclusion is available. The assessment reports for both projects were expected to be completed at the end of 2026, according to LVV and the programme-stage plans quoted in the notices.

If the work continues after that, LVV says it will consider administrative compulsion. In parallel, the agency intends to request the soil mass report and to weigh whether an environmental permit or other follow-up measures are needed.

Timeline

  • 2009: Google buys a former paper mill in Hamina and converts it into a data centre, according to Google.
  • July 2018: Google opens its Google Cloud Platform region in Finland.
  • 28 November 2024: The Council of State authorises Metsähallitus to sell four parcels of about 1,400 hectares in Muhos and Kajaani to Google, for over €27 million.
  • Summer 2025: EIA procedures start for both the Muhos and Kajaani-Otanmäki projects.
  • 19 September 2025: Kainuu ELY Centre issues its liaison authority statement on the Kajaani-Otanmäki programme.
  • 28 November 2025: North Ostrobothnia ELY Centre issues its statement on the Muhos programme.
  • 1 January 2026: LVV replaces the ELY Centres as liaison authority in EIA procedures.
  • 31 March 2026: A landscape work permit application is filed in Muhos, supplemented on 4 May.
  • 20 April 2026: Muhos building control asks LVV for an opinion.
  • 23 April 2026: Groundbreaking at Kronstorf, Austria.
  • 17 May 2026: Tuike files a building permit application for one data centre in Kajaani.
  • 18 May 2026: LVV tells Muhos building control that no permit can be granted before the EIA report and reasoned conclusion.
  • May 2026: Sweco carries out Natura 2000 screening assessments at the two Kajaani areas, according to Tuike.
  • 2 June 2026: Construction begins at Horndal, Sweden.
  • 5 June 2026: Muhos building control writes to Tuike that section 109 preparatory measures are possible.
  • 6 August 2026: Kajaani issues a favourable noise notification decision on blasting and crushing.
  • 27 August 2026: LVV hears of preparatory work at Kajaani-Otanmäki at a site meeting.
  • 9 September 2026: Google says it will invest at least €13 billion in Finland over 2027 and 2028.
  • 17 September 2026: Yle reports on work at the Kajaani site.
  • 18 September 2026: LVV requests written clarifications; a ditching notification is filed at Muhos.
  • 23 September 2026: Kajaani building control submits its report.
  • 25 September 2026: Tuike submits its reply.
  • 28 September 2026: Muhos municipality submits its report.
  • 29 September 2026: A ditching notification is filed at Kajaani.
  • 6 October 2026: LVV issues the two notices to Tuike Finland Oy.
  • 14 October 2026: Deadline for Tuike's written explanation.
  • 23 October 2026: Latest date for suspending the specified work.
  • End of 2026: EIA reports for both projects are expected.

Summary

  • Who: Finland's Permit and Supervision Agency (LVV) and Tuike Finland Oy, a Google subsidiary, with the municipalities of Muhos and Kajaani, the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, and Google as other parties.
  • What: LVV issued two notices calling on Tuike to suspend environment-altering preparatory work (felling, topsoil removal, excavation, blasting, crushing, ditching, site roads and storage areas) at the planned Muhos (about 571 hectares) and Kajaani-Otanmäki (about 405 hectares) sites until the EIA procedures are completed, with possible administrative compulsion and a conditional fine if the call is not followed.
  • When: The notices were issued on 6 October 2026. Tuike's reply is due by 14 October 2026, work must stop immediately and by 23 October 2026 at the latest, and the EIA reports are expected at the end of 2026.
  • Where: Muhos and Kajaani-Otanmäki, in the Oulu and Kainuu regions of northern Finland, as part of Google's planned €13 billion Finnish investment alongside Hamina and Vaala.
  • Why: LVV considers that large-scale preparatory work, already covering about 330 hectares at Muhos and just under 200 hectares at Kajaani according to Tuike's own figures, alters the sites in ways the EIA procedure is meant to assess beforehand, and could narrow the alternatives it is supposed to compare.