Finnish government has proposed cutting the electricity tax paid by data center companies. The current tax rate data centers are paying for their electricity usage is 1,703 cent per kWh. If the government proposal is approved, the tax rate will be lowered to 0,703 cent per kWh possibly already from the beginning of 2014.
Finland offers an excellent environment for data center operators. The well-functioning infrastructure, Russia’s proximity, cool climate and highly-skilled IT-professionals are some of the key reasons why many international data center companies are looking towards Finland.
In 2011 IT company Atos began building the world’s most eco-efficient data centre in Helsinki. Same year TelecityGroup acquired Tenue Oy and Academica Oy. Telecity is currently increasing its capacity in Helsinki to cater for ongoing customer demand with the construction of new data centres in Hansa and Viikinmäki. Google opened an energy efficient data center in Hamina in 2011 and Russia’s most popular search engine, Yandex is building a new data center in southern Finland. Also Microsoft announced just two weeks ago plans to invest 200 million euros to a data center project in northern Finland.
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TelecityGroup has three data centers in Helsinki. Company is currently expanding their business with two new data centers. Picture: TelecityGroup Finland Oy
Source: Helsingin Sanomat (hs.fi)
