News · 2026-09-11

Google will take half of a Finnish nuclear plant's output for 22 years

Google has agreed to buy up to half the output of Finland's Loviisa nuclear power plant for 22 years, under a deal announced by the Finnish utility Fortum on 9 September 2026. Loviisa supplies about a tenth of Finland's electricity, and Fortum says the contract underpins a life-extension programme without which the plant could not keep running beyond 2030.

Key facts

• A 22-year power purchase agreement for up to 50% of Loviisa's capacity, starting in 2028 at a smaller volume and reaching half the plant's output from 2030 to 2049.
• Loviisa produces about 10% of Finland's electricity; its operating licence runs to 2050.
• Google says it is investing €13 billion in Finland, which the BBC reports is its largest single investment in Europe.
• Primary sources: Fortum's stock exchange release and Google's announcement.

Why AI companies want nuclear

AI data centres run around the clock, and the companies building them have promised to match their consumption with clean power. Wind and solar are cheap but intermittent; nuclear plants produce steady output day and night. That makes an existing reactor, already built, already licensed and already paid for, one of the most attractive assets in the energy market for a company in Google's position. Ground Truth has tracked the strain from the other side, including data centres consuming nearly a quarter of Ireland's electricity.

Existing power, kept alive

This is mostly not new capacity. Fortum says that without its life-extension programme, Loviisa's two-reactor plant "could not continue operations beyond 2030." A long contract with a creditworthy buyer is what makes that investment pay. Think of a tenant who pre-pays half the rent on an ageing building for twenty years so the landlord can afford the renovation that keeps it standing. Fortum says the deal also makes a small new power increase possible, on top of an upgrade already planned for 2028.

Fortum's chief executive, Markus Rauramo, framed it in investor terms: "Our agreement with Google meets Fortum's long-term return requirements and clearly improves the risk-adjusted return profile of existing nuclear assets, supporting earnings visibility over the contract duration." Aris Karcanias, Google's energy director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, pointed to geography: "By supporting the lifetime extension of the Loviisa plant, which is located close to our data centre in Hamina where we first put down our roots in Finland, we're doing our part to keep a critical energy source on the grid."

The bigger Finnish build-out

The power deal is part of a wider commitment. Fortum says Google's €13 billion is to be invested over 2027 and 2028, including data centres. Google's post lists its existing Hamina data centre plus new sites at Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala, and a battery project meant "to help stabilize prices during cold, windless periods." Fortum will optimise that battery, a 94 MW storage system beside Google's new Kajaani data centre.

The two companies are also looking further ahead. They signed a memorandum of understanding covering new nuclear, renewable capacity and flexibility services, and Fortum says they "will work together to identify potential business models to improve project competitiveness for new nuclear reactors at Loviisa." That is not a commitment to build, but it shows where the relationship is meant to go: from buying an existing plant's output to helping pay for the next one. The BBC's report quotes Alphabet's Ruth Porat: "Google is proud to deepen our roots in Finland," and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo: "Google's decision is a clear testament to our strengths." World Nuclear News has the technical background on the plant.

Why it matters

The anchor fact is the share: one company is contracting for half of a plant that supplies roughly a tenth of a country's electricity, for longer than most of today's AI models will exist. Deals like this are how the AI build-out is reshaping power markets. They can keep low-carbon plants open that might otherwise close, but they also commit a large slice of a small country's steady power to a single customer.

The honest caveat is that the key numbers for the public are missing. No primary source gives the contracted volume in megawatts or terawatt-hours, and the price is undisclosed. Fortum says keeping the plant online "will help stabilize electricity prices," but no independent analysis of the effect on Finnish consumers has been published. The Hacker News discussion is largely about exactly that question.

Primary source, verified: read the paper →

Ground Truth. (2026, September 11). Google will take half of a Finnish nuclear plant's output for 22 years. Ground Truth. https://groundtruth.day/news/google-will-take-half-of-a-finnish-nuclear-plants-output-for-22-years.html

@misc{groundtruth:google-will-take-half-of-a-finnish-nuclear-plants-output-for-22-years,
  title  = {Google will take half of a Finnish nuclear plant's output for 22 years},
  author = {{Ground Truth}},
  year   = {2026},
  month  = {sep},
  url    = {https://groundtruth.day/news/google-will-take-half-of-a-finnish-nuclear-plants-output-for-22-years.html}
}

Topics: data-centers · energy · nuclear · google · infrastructure · europe