Summary
- Tuike Finland must stop environmentally significant preparatory work at Muhos and Kajaani immediately and no later than 23 October.
- The restriction remains until environmental impact assessment procedures for the two proposed data centres have been completed.
- Planning, surveys, soil investigations and work without significant environmental effects can continue.
Finland’s Licensing and Supervision Authority has ordered Google subsidiary Tuike Finland to halt environmentally significant preparatory work at proposed data centre sites in Muhos and Kajaani until their environmental impact assessment procedures have been completed.
The authority issued the instruction on 6 October and said the affected work must stop immediately and no later than 23 October. Tuike has also been asked to provide a written response by 14 October, including whether it intends to comply.
The intervention follows extensive physical preparation at the two sites. According to the authority, work already carried out includes tree clearance, removal of topsoil, construction of site roads and storage areas, alterations to ditches and culverts, and stormwater works.
Those activities alter the ground, drainage and habitats that the environmental impact assessment process is intended to examine before material development proceeds. The authority said extensive preparation can weaken the ability of the assessment to influence the project before environmental effects have already occurred.
Tuike can continue planning, surveying, soil investigations and other work that does not significantly alter the environment. The restriction therefore applies to physical site intervention rather than stopping all technical and commercial development activity.
Muhos remains short of a final investment decision
Environmental assessment documents identify Tuike Finland as Google’s Finnish data centre company and set out plans for nine data centre buildings at Muhos together with supporting infrastructure. The project company had not made a final investment decision when the assessment programme was prepared.
Muhos municipality signed a €26 million land use agreement with Tuike in August 2025 to support zoning and infrastructure for the proposed development. Under that agreement, the municipality is responsible for streets and water infrastructure, while Tuike will make the agreed payment once the zoning plan becomes legally effective.
The arrangement also includes approximately 255 hectares of forest protection compensation. Google had already acquired the planned data centre land, but the municipality stated when the agreement was signed that the company had not made its final investment decision.
The regulatory order now constrains the sequence in which the physical project can progress. Roads, drainage systems, cleared ground and storage areas can all be required before main construction, but building them before environmental assessment is complete can reduce the practical scope for changing the design if the assessment identifies unacceptable effects.
The same issue applies to alternatives within a large campus. Building locations, drainage routes, access roads and mitigation measures can change during environmental review. Altering the ground before that process has finished can make some options more difficult or expensive to adopt.
Google already operates its Hamina data centre in Finland and has announced a broader Finnish investment programme. Muhos and Kajaani are part of that expansion, but neither should be treated as completed or operating capacity.
The authority’s action does not cancel the two developments. It prevents environmentally significant site preparation from moving further ahead of the assessment process and leaves lower impact design and investigation work available to Tuike while those procedures continue.
Whether full preparation resumes will depend on completion of the environmental assessments and the regulatory steps that follow them. Until then, the work capable of materially changing the sites is subject to the authority’s instruction.
