Google has signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with Finnish utility Fortum, covering up to 50% of the generation capacity of the Loviisa nuclear power plant. Announced on September 9, 2026, the deal marks Google’s first nuclear contract outside the United States and represents a tangible step in the clean energy race toward the European market.
The terms of the agreement provide for reduced supply starting in 2028, ramping up to the full 50% share from 2030 through 2049. Fortum stated that without this deal, the Loviisa plant — in operation since 1977 — would not have been able to continue running beyond 2030. The PPA provides the revenue certainty needed to back an approximately €1 billion investment programme to extend the plant’s operational life to 2050. Of that amount, around €700 million was still awaiting a final investment decision at the time of signing.
The agreement goes beyond simply keeping an existing plant online. Fortum already has a 38-megawatt upgrade in the pipeline for 2028, and the new deal with Google could enable an additional 10 MW increase. The Loviisa plant currently supplies around 10% of Finland’s electricity needs. Keeping it running — and expanding it — strengthens the grid without waiting years for new large-scale plants to be built. The two partners also signed a memorandum of understanding to explore new nuclear capacity, renewable energy, and flexibility solutions.
The backdrop is one in which Finland is playing an increasingly central role in Google’s energy strategy. The company already operates a large campus in Hamina, on the southern coast, a short distance from Loviisa, and is building new data centres near Kajaani, Muhos, and Vaala. Google has announced a total investment of €13 billion in digital infrastructure across the country during 2027–2028, the largest single spending commitment the company has made in Europe. AI workloads demand vast amounts of continuous, reliable electricity — and nuclear, with its baseload generation profile, is a precise match for that need.
The length of the contract itself is telling. Most corporate PPAs in Europe run between ten and fifteen years. A commitment extending to 2049 reflects Google’s confidence in its own future growth and an understanding that nuclear energy requires long time horizons to be economically viable. Fortum’s shares surged by double digits on the news. If the hyperscaler-to-existing-nuclear-plant model gains traction — and the signals point in that direction — it could become a tool for extending the life of plants that would otherwise face early closure, turning a significant portion of the tech industry into nuclear energy’s most powerful ally in Europe.
