Swedish renewable energy developer Helios Nordic Energy is moving forward with plans to build a large-scale data center campus in central Finland, marking another step in the Nordic region's rapid expansion as a European data center hub.
The municipality of Lapinlahti announced this week that Helios Nordic Energy Finland Oy has submitted a zoning initiative for a data center development in the Alapitkä area, approximately 450 kilometers north of Helsinki. The project spans more than 80 hectares adjacent to the Alapitkä settlement and sits next to Fingrid Oyj's Alapitkä substation, a strategic location that ensures direct access to high-voltage grid infrastructure.
The site could host up to 500MW of capacity, according to the municipality. The area has previously been approved for a smaller 80-100MW data center development, suggesting that the new proposal represents a significant expansion of earlier plans. The municipal board is scheduled to discuss the zoning initiative later this month, and construction could begin as early as next year if approvals proceed on schedule.
Helios is also planning to build a solar plant in the same area, aligning the data center project with the company's broader renewable energy portfolio. Founded in 2019, Helios Nordic Energy operates more than 100 solar projects across the Nordics and has been owned by French infrastructure group VINCI since 2024.
"There is currently a huge demand for data centers in Europe," said Aleksi Aalto, project developer at Helios. "In Finland, we have the trump cards to implement safe, high-quality, and reliable data centers. At the same time, this will bring jobs and new opportunities to many locations in Finland. Cooperation in Lapinlahti has been smooth, and we are hopeful about the development of our Alapitkä data center."
The company is also planning a separate data center project in the Tervamäki area of Iisalmi, a town located approximately 26 kilometers from Lapinlahti, indicating a broader regional strategy in Finland's Northern Savo area.
Local officials have welcomed the proposal, emphasizing its potential economic impact. "If implemented, the data center investment would have a significant impact on the vitality of the municipality. During the construction period, the project would bring hundreds of jobs to the municipality and even more than a hundred permanent jobs would be created," said Henri Ruotsalainen, Mayor of Lapinlahti.
The project reflects a broader trend of energy companies diversifying into data center development across the Nordics, leveraging the region's abundant renewable energy resources, stable grid infrastructure, and favorable climate for cooling. Finland has emerged as a particularly attractive destination for hyperscale and wholesale data center operators seeking to meet growing European demand for cloud services and AI workloads.