Summary
- Helios Nordic Energy has submitted a zoning initiative for more than 80 hectares beside Fingrid’s Alapitkä substation.
- The site could potentially support up to 500MW, but that figure is a development envelope rather than contracted or operating capacity.
- Energy developers are moving closer to datacentre projects as access to land, grid infrastructure and renewable generation becomes more valuable to compute development.
Helios Nordic Energy is seeking to develop more than 80 hectares in Lapinlahti, central Finland, for a datacentre site that could eventually accommodate as much as 500MW beside Fingrid’s Alapitkä substation.
The number needs to remain attached to its planning status. Helios has submitted a zoning initiative and the municipality is considering the proposal, while the same area had previously been approved for a much smaller 80MW to 100MW development. Construction could begin next year if the project clears the necessary stages, but no 500MW operating campus has yet been commissioned.
Helios also plans solar generation in the area, bringing together two sides of a business that has historically concentrated on renewable-energy development. The company was founded in 2019, has built a substantial Nordic solar pipeline and has been owned by VINCI since 2024.
Project developer Aleksi Aalto said: “There is currently a huge demand for data centers in Europe.” Demand alone, however, does not convert an 80-hectare site into compute capacity, and the Lapinlahti proposal still has to progress through zoning, grid commitments, customer agreements, design, finance and construction.
Energy developers move closer to compute
The overlap between renewable development and datacentres is becoming stronger as electricity access determines which compute projects can proceed. Energy developers already work through land acquisition, connection studies, planning and large electrical infrastructure, giving them capabilities that can be applied to sites intended for major electricity consumers as well as generators.
Proximity to the Alapitkä substation gives the Lapinlahti site an obvious advantage, although being located beside grid infrastructure does not mean hundreds of megawatts are automatically available on the required schedule. Fingrid still has to manage capacity across the transmission system, while new industrial loads compete with electrification elsewhere in the economy.
Finland has nevertheless attracted substantial datacentre interest because its power system, cool climate and available land can support large facilities outside Europe’s more congested metropolitan hubs. Renewable generation adds another attraction, particularly for customers under pressure to account for the emissions associated with energy-intensive computing.
Connecting a nearby solar project to that narrative requires care. A datacentre operates continuously while solar output varies with daylight and weather, so its actual electricity mix depends on grid arrangements, contracts and other generation rather than simple geographical proximity to a renewable plant.
500MW remains a ceiling
If Lapinlahti eventually reached 500MW, it would rank among Europe’s largest datacentre developments, making phased delivery considerably more plausible than a single construction programme. Zoning provides the first meaningful milestone, after which secured power, a named operator or customer and committed financing would offer clearer evidence of how much of the site is likely to be built.
Local authorities also have to judge the balance between the economic value of the project and the infrastructure it consumes. Datacentres can generate construction activity, tax income and skilled technical work, although permanent employment is usually modest relative to their physical scale and electricity requirements.
Henri Ruotsalainen, mayor of Lapinlahti, said: “If implemented, the data center investment would have a significant impact on the vitality of the municipality.” The opening words carry much of the weight: implementation is the distinction between a strategically located development site and hundreds of megawatts of functioning digital infrastructure.
Helios has identified a large parcel of land beside serious electrical infrastructure at a point when European compute developers are looking north for power and space. The next evidence will come from the planning and grid process rather than the headline capacity figure, which remains an upper boundary on what the site might one day support.
