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Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

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Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#291

Post by rsolva »

mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #180
sien wrote: post #5

Good on Google. Finland has low emissions from electricity : https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/all/yearly 71 gC02eq/kwH France, Sweden and Norway look like good places for data centres in Europe too on the basis of low electricity emissions.

Here in Norway we already have issues with volatile and high electricity prices, because: 1) We're not expanding hydropower generation very much. We can upgrade existing dams for improved efficiency, but no new dams are being planned, because it's politically and environmentally arduous to do so. There's some wind buildout, but that's also a political quagmire due to nimbyism. Nuclear isn't even close to having a pol…

Agreed on all points, but you forgot to mentioned that Google pay close to no taxes in Norway (~1%). At the same time, their hyperscaler in Skien alone will, when finished, consume ~5% of total energy production. Put another way, 25% of what households use.

Now Google is planing another hyperscalar in Østfold, and other hyperscalars are being built in rapid succession (about 50 is planned), putting a severe strain on our power transfer net.

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#292

Post by scottyah »

adamors wrote: post #186
cloudie78 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s a good thing, they could also build a nuclear reactor or two or three. Wouldn’t hurt.

A nuclear reactor is takes years and years to build, this is again Europe selling it's sovereignty to big tech for some short term cash.

So this is the actual long-term bet, where there's incentive to start building more power infrastructure? You'd prefer Finland gets the medium-term results where they don't find a way to finance more nuclear then have to buy gas from Russia like Germany?

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#293

Post by plufz »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #8
sien wrote: post #5

Good on Google. Finland has low emissions from electricity : https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/all/yearly 71 gC02eq/kwH France, Sweden and Norway look like good places for data centres in Europe too on the basis of low electricity emissions.

At least Sweden is struggling a lot with scaling its power production, to the point where it's a problem for existing and new industries and causing some rather extreme price volatility. A lot of the green energy is from hydro dams and you can't really add new rivers to the geography to support additional industry.

Is that really it? I thought Sweden was a net exporter and that the price volatility was much more related to the eu pricing and distribution?

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#294

Post by AngryData »

adamors wrote: post #186
cloudie78 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s a good thing, they could also build a nuclear reactor or two or three. Wouldn’t hurt.

A nuclear reactor is takes years and years to build, this is again Europe selling it's sovereignty to big tech for some short term cash.

Its not like building massive amounts of data centers is a one and done in just a year or two either though.

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#295

Post by mhast »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #275
tormeh wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In absolutely no way is that true. The EU price varies by renewables production. When it's dark and still that's when electricity costs the most, and that's when Germany imports energy. It exports when there's sun and wind, but then the energy is cheap. So Germany sells low and buys high. Doesn't matter if Germany is a net exporter because it exports at the wrong time.

Germany has excess coal and gas capacity which they can turn on when needed. They, like most people import when it's cheaper than the local alternative. Interconnected nations all importing when cheap electricity is available lowers costs for everyone. Looking up the numbers Germany sells high and buys low when it's net importing https://www.stromdaten.info/ANALYSE/importexport/index.php

In the long term interconnected nations might make electricity cheap everywhere. Currently it's mostly making it more expensive everywhere else. (As someone living in south of Sweden.)

Edit: But to be fair... The biggest reason it's expensive is likely that companies like to make money.

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#296

Post by jonp888 »

notTooFarGone wrote: post #188
mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Norway we already have issues with volatile and high electricity prices, because: 1) We're not expanding hydropower generation very much. We can upgrade existing dams for improved efficiency, but no new dams are being planned, because it's politically and environmentally arduous to do so. There's some wind buildout, but that's also a political quagmire due to nimbyism. Nuclear isn't even close to having a pol…

So Germany is a net exporter of energy and is somehow causing checks notes ALL of Europe's high energy prices? Weird

For some reason the HN commentariat is very pro-nuclear, and it drives them INSANE that the shutdown had minimal consequences(as only a small proportion of power production was nuclear and it was entirely replaced by new renewable capacity).

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#297

Post by Kon5ole »

Remarkably they are planning even higher electricity use from centers in Sweden, up to 3.5GW. They also have significant centers in Norway. They are going to consume a significant fraction of Scandinavia's total electricity production if these plans are completed.

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#298

Post by T-A »

cpach wrote: post #139
marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Sweden is struggling a lot with scaling its power production, to the point where it's a problem for existing and new industries and causing some rather extreme price volatility. A lot of the green energy is from hydro dams and you can't really add new rivers to the geography to support additional industry.

I’m starting to think that perhaps the government here in .se should support new reactors. It won’t be cheap though…

https://www.ans.org/news/2026-06-18/article-8133/new-sweden-...

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#299

Post by bjourne »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #8
sien wrote: post #5

Good on Google. Finland has low emissions from electricity : https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/all/yearly 71 gC02eq/kwH France, Sweden and Norway look like good places for data centres in Europe too on the basis of low electricity emissions.

At least Sweden is struggling a lot with scaling its power production, to the point where it's a problem for existing and new industries and causing some rather extreme price volatility. A lot of the green energy is from hydro dams and you can't really add new rivers to the geography to support additional industry.

The bottleneck is the grid, not the production centers. Volatility is not more extreme in Sweden than other connected (Nord Pool) countries. Companies lament the lack of grid connectivity all the time. Then they get the offer "Pay for the cost of grid expansion to connect you" and they are not so interested anymore.

Re: Google will buy half the electricity from one of Finland's nuclear power plants

#300

Post by bjourne »

throwaway473825 wrote: post #117
marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least Sweden is struggling a lot with scaling its power production, to the point where it's a problem for existing and new industries and causing some rather extreme price volatility. A lot of the green energy is from hydro dams and you can't really add new rivers to the geography to support additional industry.

With hindsight, it wasn't a very good idea to shut down 6 of 12 nuclear reactors. Still much better than the situation in Germany, but that's a very low bar. It will be interesting to see how the Rolls-Royce SMR project works out. Since it appears to be impossible to build anything cheaply in the UK, this will be the real test.

Power generation is 25% higher with 6 than with 12 reactors. Plenty of scaremongering around volatility, though. Consumers don't realize that one-hour price spikes are completely irrelevant since they pay monthly (or even quarterly) AVERAGE prices. Max, min, mean, and standard deviation. People don't know statistics and are so easy to fool by demagogues.
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