Google to Build $700 Million Data Center in Skien, Norway

Google is building a $700 million data center outside the city of Skien, Norway, the company's first in the country. The project comes as Norway confronts an energy shortfall after years of surpluses from hydropower, with no new sources left to develop easily.

" Marius Roheim Aarvold, mayor of Skien, noted that industry is getting louder about the need for more power while voters oppose wind turbines that could supply it.

7% of Norway’s land is urbanized, the lowest share in Europe apart from Iceland. Yet a study released in 2025 shows that only 37% of Norwegians support wind power, with support for projects near one’s own home dropping to 27%. The federal government of Norway gave localities veto power over wind projects in 2021.

Since then development has stalled. In Skien, Aarvold struck a deal after the 2023 local elections to put any proposed wind-power studies on hold for four years. Norway set a goal in its 2015 National Transport Plan that 100% of new passenger car sales would be zero emission by 2025.

Electric vehicles now account for 98% of new car sales. 2 trillion, or about $390,000 for each Norwegian citizen. Erik Telle sold his diesel Volvo one week before April 29, 2026, and purchased an electric Škoda.

Photographed at a Circle K charging station in Oslo that day, he said he cried when he sold the old car but was prodded by his daughter and son-in-law, who are on their second EV. Dag Arne Ribe was charging his electric vehicle at the same Circle K along the E6 highway in Oslo on April 29, 2026. The Circle K charging station has 36 chargers and is one of the largest in the city.

After 2015, almost all fast-charging stations in Norway have been commercially funded, Unni Berge, a spokesperson for the Norwegian EV Association, said. Bendik Nybakk Torsæter, an EV expert at SINTEF, noted that the 2015 plan had support from all political parties at the time, but polarization has since made such consensus harder.

Herøya Industrial Park in Porsgrunn accounts for more than one-third of the 10,000 industrial jobs across Telemark County, which has a population of 178,000.

Eivind Funnemark, an organizer for the anti-wind power advocacy group Motvind, opposes the turbines planned for the hills above Porsgrunn. His grandfather built the family’s summer farm there in 1924. Walking the site proposed for 800-foot-tall windmills, Funnemark pointed to ancient oaks, wood grouse breeding grounds and a spring so clear the water can be drunk by the ladle.

A SINTEF report suggests Norway could save 42 terawatt hours between now and 2050 through energy efficiency. U.S. pennies — removes incentives to conserve.

U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour while some customers in Germany pay more than 40 cents. ” He added that Norwegians transitioned because the math worked. Solutions are emerging elsewhere.

Ulven Energy Central in Oslo uses four heat pumps and waste heat from a neighboring data center to heat surrounding neighborhoods. Water enters the data center at Ulven at 120 degrees Fahrenheit and exits at over 175 degrees Fahrenheit, Truls Erling Aas Jemtland, a spokesperson for Hafslund Celsio, said.

A Google data center in Hamina, Finland, is expected to provide 80% of the city’s heating needs.

Hedda Foss Five, the former mayor of Skien, has suggested bringing stakeholders together to visit operating wind parks. Stein Birger Johnsen has proposed building what he called the biggest greenhouse in the world near the Skien data center to use its waste heat for growing tomatoes. A view of the harbor in Porsgrunn was photographed on April 30, 2026.

Marius Roheim Aarvold and Stein Birger Johnsen were photographed in Skien city hall on April 28, 2026. The E69 road on the island of Mageröya, not far from the North Cape of Norway, was photographed on Aug. 6, 2024.

Com reported that Norway’s oil wealth has insulated voters from feeling the financial pinch of the growing competition for energy, creating a challenge for collective decisionmaking on the country’s next energy steps.