Google invests €3B to build environment-friendly data centres across Europe

Google has progressed from being a search engine giant as its focus is not many other things now. Well, the Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, had been to Finland to discuss with Prime Minister Antti Rinne about the priorities for the European Union Presidency including the plan for building sustainable economic growth by a carbon-free future possible.

He claims that the Nordic countries are examples of how the internet can help drive economic growth. To achieve their vision of making Google more helpful for everyone, the company supports the digital ambitions in two ways. One of these ways is to invest in sustainable digital infrastructure in Europe.

Invests €3 billion

Going by its strategy, Google announced that it plans to invest €3 billion to expand data centres across Europe in the next two years. With this investment, the overall investment in Europe’s internet infrastructure will become €15 billion since 2007. It claims that its data centres will become environment-friendly as the company is committed to building data centres that run on clean energy.

Besides this, Google is in plans to invest another €600 million in 2020 to expand the data centres presence in Hamina, Finland. This will take the total investment from the company to €2 billion since 2009. It states that the data centre at Hamina is a significant driver of opportunity and economic growth. It serves as a model of energy efficiency and sustainability for all its data centres.

New job opportunities

As per a recent study by Copenhagen Economics, Google’s investments will generate economic activity for the region. Also, it will support over 13,000 full-time jobs in the European Union every year. On the other hand, the investments will support nearly 4,300 jobs in Finland each year from now.

The Nordics are stated to be showing strong leadership with Finland educating 1% of its population on Artificial Intelligence. As Google believes that 90% of all jobs need some digital skills, Grow with Google, which is a global effort offering free training to people was launched. It helps people find a job, grow their business or take their career to the next level. Recently, Grow with a Google skills hub dubbed Digital garage was opened in Helsinki to help job-seekers understand the importance of digital skills in the highly competitive job market right now.

How will it be beneficial?

Operating with the commitment to achieve sustainability across the world, Google announced that nearly half the megawatts produced will be in Europe. This will be made possible with the launch of 10 renewable energy projects including a new offshore wind project in Belgium, two wind energy projects in Sweden and five solar energy projects in Denmark. In Finland, the company aims to come up with two new wind energy projects to achieve over twice the renewable energy capacity in the country.

Main image picture credits: Lasse Hendriks

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