Today we announced our plans to expand our digital infrastructure in Finland, including new data centers and local investments and partnerships in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala.For over 15 years, Google has been privileged to call Finland home, and partner locally to support the Finnish electricity system. Since our first onshore wind project became operational in 2019, our clean energy power purchase agreements (PPAs) have added more energy to the Finnish grid than we’ve used and helped pave the way for other companies to enter Finland’s PPA market. We’ve also directly supported our neighbors through local energy initiatives, such as transforming our Hamina data center into a sustainable source of heat for the community.As we expand our presence in Finland, we are sharing our blueprint for responsible energy growth. This includes siting our data centers where they can support the Finnish grid, expanding our investment in Finland’s clean energy supply, and launching new community programs.Smarter data center siting for a balanced gridBuilding infrastructure responsibly starts with partnering with local experts to choose the best possible places for development. We worked closely with Fingrid, Business Finland, and local municipalities to identify locations for our future digital infrastructure in northern and central Finland where there is existing grid infrastructure and carbon-free energy. By using power closer to where it is generated, and where more generation can be built, we aim to be good grid citizens.To better understand how smart siting can maximize benefits to the grid, we commissioned a study to model the impact of locating a hypothetical 1GW