There is a growing tension at the heart of Europe’s data centre investment strategy. Across the EU, governments at the local, national, and supranational levels are keen to attract investment and to create the essential computing and storage capacity to drive digitalization and ensure effective participation in the AI economy. At the same time, there is increasing concern regarding the energy, environmental and economic impacts of these huge investments. This does not diminish legitimate concerns around grid pressure or land use, but it does highlight that the debate must weigh both costs and measurable economic return, writes Fredrik Jansson, chief strategy and marketing and communications officer at atNorth.
To some extent, the sector has itself to blame: we constantly talk in terms of consumption and ever bigger scale – but rarely outline the benefits in terms of services, jobs, tax income and acceleration of switching to sustainable digital solutions. For many, a data center looks like a secretive, silent warehouse – an “empty box” consuming energy and taking up land. But this perception obscures the reality that modern data centers are, in fact, economic engines. They not only deliver the digital services upon which we all rely, but also create jobs, drive skills development, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local infrastructure. Far from being passive ‘energy hogs,’ they are catalysts of regional, national, and European growth and innovation as well as green alternatives to traditional industries.
More than megawatts
The Nordics benefit from abundant renewable energy and established industrial infrastructure. This underlying model – where data centre investment meets regional regeneration, skills, and energy reuse – is replicable across Europe with the right policy frameworks. Recent data from Finland, for example, provides one of the clearest illustrations of how data centers leverage infrastructure to create a positive impact. According to the Finnish Data Center Association (FDCA), Finland’s data center industry is valued at approximately €1 billion and is projected to quadruple to €4 billion by 2030. This is in line with predictions for the Nordic data center construction overall growing at a compound annual growth rate of 23% to 2030 and outpaces predicted growth across the EU of approximately 10% per annum reaching roughly 154 billion by 2030.
A recent report (2024) from Samfunnsøkonomisk Analyse estimated value creation from the data-centre industry in Norway at about NOK 4.7 billion (nearly 400 million Euros). Thanks to strong local players such as atNorth, data centers across the Nordics already contribute to GDP and in Iceland, for example, the value of the market is forecast to almost double to over €800 million by 2030. Clearly, data centers represent major contributions to Nordic nations’ economies. In fact, for small economies, few sectors have such significance for growth.
The beneficial impact of data centers on local economies was recently summed up by the mayor of the Icelandic town Akureyri. Speaking in Reykjavik, Mayor Ásthildur said that atNorth was on track to invest ISK 30 billion (approximately €212 million) in the town in the coming years. More fundamentally, building a data center in the town was having a ripple effect on everything from education, by strengthening opportunities in technical training, to transport links, as data center staff and visitors drive demand for international flight connections at Akureyri Airport. Plus, of course, these visitors and staff spend money with local businesses including hotels, restaurants, and other services.
Jobs and regeneration
Counter to the common view that data centers represent ‘jobless growth’ the FDCA also estimates that employment linked to the sector in Finland is expected to grow to almost 10,000 full-time equivalent employees annually by 2030. That’s in addition to the almost 45,000 temporary jobs supported annually by the construction phase by 2030. Breaking this down to per-site figures shows that the beneficial impact on local employment can be significant. Although a ‘typical’ 100MW facility may only directly employ between 100 and 150 people (high-skilled and high wage) it will also support more than 500 additional jobs in the local community every year during its operation.
It is also worth noting that many data centers, across the Nordics and elsewhere, are built on abandoned industrial sites. These already feature strong power transmission connections, locations close to population centers and plenty of space. Building data centers here can rejuvenate brownfield sites and bring jobs back to declining post-industrial areas. For example, the atNorth facilities DEN01 in Copenhagen and FIN04 in Myllykoski, northeast of Helsinki, are built on disused industrial sites (respectively a print shop and a paper mill).
Value from resources
Arguments against data center planning often focus on the raw numbers – and especially on the energy consumption figures. While critics focus narrowly on electricity use, the better metric is value per kilowatt – and on this measure, data centers consistently outperform. They are the new drivers of growth, converting investment into jobs, skills, tax revenues, and community benefits. The FDCA report underscores the same point: data centers deliver more than they consume.
Data centers can also create a predictable long-term market for electricity that stimulates investment in renewables. The FDCA research projects dramatic growth in power demand – from approximately 285 MW today to 1.5 GW by 2030. This highlights how this demand is accelerating investment in new wind power purchase agreements and grid upgrades, supporting Finland’s renewable transition.
Other research points to the efficiency of power use by data centers. They have the incentive of high consumption (and thus high cost of power) to invest in efficiency and have driven significant improvement in power usage efficiency (PUE), which was 1.74 in 2005 and is now under 1.2. In Norway, independent analysis shows data centres deliver twice the value creation per kWh of energy consumed compared with traditional power-intensive industries.
Furthermore, many operators such as atNorth are investing heavily in heat reuse systems that allow energy to be ‘used twice.’ As computer servers process the digital services we all use, they create heat. Capturing this heat and feeding it into district heating systems reduces the requirement for energy generation to heat people’s homes. atNorth seeks to design-in heat reuse at all its sites and is demonstrating more innovative uses which not only save energy but stimulate local economies. Its partnerships with Kesko in Finland (providing heating to a local store) and the Akureyri municipality in Iceland (heating greenhouses to educate local children on sustainable farming and energy efficiency) will both reuse heat from its data centers to benefit local communities. These are just two examples of atNorth’s ‘Blueprint for the Future’ which places data center development at the heart of sustainable communities.
From investment to impact: Strategic infrastructure for Europe
The Finnish study reveals that a single 300 MW data center can deliver in the region of €1 billion in annual economic value add, with multiplier effects rippling across construction and operations. During the build phase, thousands of tradespeople and contractors are employed, generating immediate wage and tax flows. Once operational, facilities provide long-term, stable jobs, often above national average wages, and anchor regional supplier ecosystems. FDCA estimates that this investment could deliver €400 million per year in tax revenues. Construction alone is forecast to generate €12 billion in cumulative investment and €1.7 billion in tax revenues by the end of the decade.
These Nordic examples demonstrate that data centers are more than infrastructure, they are enablers of economic independence and technological leadership. Europe’s pursuit of digital sovereignty depends on its own secure, sustainable compute backbone – a backbone built from data centers.
For policymakers at local, national and regional level, the choice is clear. Supporting the development of data centers is not a gamble, it is a proven strategy for fast ROI and long-term resilience. For Europe, they are essential infrastructure, not just for the digital economy, but for strategic autonomy and sustainable growth.