With the rise in e-commerce business and its surrounding ecosystem, there is a significant rise in the adoption of smart technologies integrated with AI, thus, the internet consumption is rising rapidly globally with Europe focusing on being the flag bearer. The technology giant Google knows it and thus increasing its footprints in data center technology globally and majorly focusing on 740 million (2019 est.) people of Europe. A major reason behind this is strict government regulations. Most of the EU countries including the UK and Germany have mandated to store data locally in Europe. Thus, the company has registered its footprints of data centers in Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Belgium to cover the the major European data market.
On 20th September 2019, Google CEO Sundar Pichai meets the Prime Minister of Finland Antti Rinne and discussed their future plans related to sustainable economic growth with a motive to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the company in Europe. The CEO announced that the company has the plan to invest around €3 billion ($3.3 billion) in Europe during the course of the next two years. By this, the total investment of the company in the European internet infrastructure will reach around €15 billion ($16.4 billion) since the year 2007. It will not only enhance the internet capacities of the country and the company’s presence in the region but also will provide more than 13,000 jobs in the EU each year.
Under the future plan, one of the major announcements is the investment of €600 million ($655 million) in Hamina, Finland in 2020 to expand the company’s data center capabilities in the country. The company already has a data center at the same location with an investment of €800 million ($874 million). The investment alone will provide nearly 4,300 jobs each year for the next two years in the country.
As a commitment to ’Go-Green’, a month earlier to the announcement, the company has bought 10 new renewable energy projects in Europe, which will provide around half-megawatt energy. It is the company’s largest purchase ever of any renewable energy project. The company has committed more than a billion Euros in new energy in the European Union. The company’s pioneer project includes an offshore wind project in Belgium and two wind energy projects in Sweden. Adding to this, the company is also working on five solar energy projects in Denmark.
Earlier to this, oJune 2019 with an investment of €600 million ($655 million), the company has started building the fourth data center in Saint-Ghislain, Belgium. The construction is expected to complete by 2021. Saint-Ghislain is the first location in Europe, to get Google’s data center. In 2010, the first data center started with an investment of €250 million ($273 million), second in 2015 with an investment of €300 million ($327 million) and the third one is still under construction and with an investment of around €250 million ($273 million). In May 2019, the company announced that it is planning to invest an additional €1 billion ($1.1 billion) to build data centers in the Netherlands with a new facility in Middenmeer. The company had already spent more than €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in the country to set up a data center in Eemshaven.
The other location where Google has set up its data center in Europe is in Dublin, Ireland. The data center was developed in September 2012 by converting a warehouse into a data center. Till now, the company has invested more than €500 million ($546 million) in the construction and operation of this data center. Apart from the US and Europe, the company is also expanding in other parts of the world. In July 2019, the company unveils a plan to build a data center in Santiago, Chile. In addition to this, in Asia, the company has its data center located in Taiwan and Singapore. Going by the trend, it is soon expected to witness more data centers in the near future with a special focus on e Europe.
*All the Euro to US$ conversion are of September 2019
