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Google has broken ground on a new data centre in Horndal, Sweden.
The facility will support Google services including Search, Cloud, Workspace, and YouTube. The company said the site will help meet demand for cloud services in Sweden and other markets.
The International Energy Agency said electricity demand from data centres rose 17% in 2025 and is projected to roughly double by 2030. It expects power use from AI-focused data centres to triple by the end of the decade.
Google also announced a €5 million fund for local initiatives in education, sustainability, economic development, and workforce training, and support projects focused on digital skills, local community programmes, and sustainability. The company said the Horndal data centre will create 100 direct full-time jobs. It is also expected to support additional roles through construction and local businesses. Google is working with nearly 60 Swedish suppliers on the project. According to the company, every direct job created at one of its data centres in Sweden is projected to support more jobs in the wider national economy.
The Horndal facility adds to Google’s presence in Sweden, where it has operated a Stockholm office since 2004. The company said its cloud platform and advertising network are used by Swedish businesses, publishers and developers. More than 284,000 people in Sweden have received Google-backed digital and AI skills training, including students, educators, small business owners, and developers.
Google.org recently announced that AI Sweden will lead a training initiative for 13,000 workers in Northern Europe. The programme is aimed at workers whose roles are more exposed to AI-related changes.
Air cooling and heat recovery
The new data centre will use air-cooled technology. Water use at the site will be limited to sanitary and domestic purposes.
Water use is one of the indicators covered under Europe’s data centre sustainability reporting rules. The European Commission adopted rules in 2024 for the first phase of an EU-rating scheme. The scheme covers energy use, water use, renewable energy, grid efficiency, and waste heat reuse.
The Google facility is being designed for off-site heat recovery. Recovered heat from the data centre will be provided free of charge to eligible partners for use in local homes and businesses. Sweden has existing examples of data centre heat recovery through district heating. The EU Covenant of Mayors said Stockholm’s Open District Heating initiative had partnered with 20 suppliers by 2022 and recovered enough heat to warm 30,000 modern apartments annually. Heat recovery readiness is included in the design of Google’s new European data centres. Its first off-site data centre heat recovery project in Hamina, Finland, is currently supplying heat to about 2,000 households.
Renewable energy agreements
Google said it has added more than 700 megawatts of renewable energy through seven wind projects in Sweden, signing its first Swedish power purchase agreement in 2013. The agreements support Google’s target to run on carbon-free energy every hour of every day on the grids where it operates.
Blerta Krenzi, chair of the municipal board in Avesta, said the project would strengthen the municipality and create new opportunities for residents. Anna Wikland, managing director of Google Nordics, said the project would improve access to Google’s technology for businesses, public institutions, and individuals in Sweden.
(Photo by Paul Hanaoka)
See also: Google and SpaceX discuss orbital AI data centres
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