Will Google Take Norway’s Power? Enough Energy for 200,000 Households

The project concerns the Moss region in southeastern Norway. The application for a power allocation was submitted at an early stage of the process. This was confirmed by Sondre Ronander, Communications Director at Google Norway.

He stated that applying for access to energy is one of the first steps in a long decision-making process. At this stage, no binding investment decisions have been made.

Ronander emphasized that the project in Østfold is part of broader plans being implemented in international markets. He pointed out that access to electricity is crucial.

Google has not yet decided whether the data center will actually be built in Våler. Further actions depend on obtaining the appropriate power allocation. Without this, the next stages will not be carried out.

The background to Google’s plans is the increase in energy consumption by data centers in Norway. According to the Norwegian Energy Authority, annual consumption has risen by 50 percent.

In the first half of 2025, the sector used 1.4 terawatt-hours of energy. The year before, it was 0.9 terawatt-hours. Currently, data centers account for about 1 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption.

At the same time, there is an ongoing political debate about energy charges for this sector. The Centre Party has proposed raising the electricity tax for data centers by 10 øre per kilowatt-hour.

The initiative has been supported by the Socialist Party and the Red Party. The proposal remains at the political stage and could affect the conditions for similar projects in the future.