Two Developers Interested in Building Data Centers in Pärnu County

Renewable energy company Evecon is seeking building rights from Lääneranna Municipality in Pärnu County to construct a data center with electricity consumption of up to 100 megawatts. The site, covering approximately 22.4 hectares, is located northwest of Lihula. The plan includes up to six data center buildings, six cooling facilities, a 330-kilovolt substation, and up to six auxiliary buildings. Evecon is also building Estonia's largest battery storage park in the same area.

Evecon CEO Karl-Joonatan Kvell said the application indicates an electrical capacity of up to 100 MW, but the final capacity will be determined later. The company and its partners previously built the 77 MW Kirikmäe solar park in Lääneranna Municipality and are currently constructing a 55 MW/250 MWh battery storage park, the largest in Estonia by capacity. They are also developing a wind farm in the municipality.

"Evecon's business model to date has focused on developing energy generation and storage projects. Building data centers together with partners would be a natural next step from that model," Kvell said.

Lääneranna Deputy Mayor Henrik Raave said the location was chosen largely due to nearby renewable energy production and the area's electricity transmission capacity. "There is a solar park here and wind turbines elsewhere in the municipality. My understanding is that the use of green energy is an important component for data centers. The other factor is, of course, the substantial electricity transmission capacity running through Lihula. The transmission line serving all of Saaremaa passes through here," Raave said.

Cooling data centers can require enormous amounts of water. According to Raave, the area does not face water shortages, and he sees potential for reusing water heated by the facility. "It could become industrial symbiosis or a form of symbiosis with the town. We have not yet had the chance to discuss it, because those opportunities would only arise if the data center is eventually completed," he added.

Raave said the project has not faced opposition from local residents. "A data center does not generate any significant noise. They are not particularly tall structures either. The positive aspect is that it could create high-paying jobs here. From what I've heard, the feedback has been mostly positive; I haven't heard any negative comments," he said.

Another developer has also expressed interest in building a data center near Lihula. "They have asked the municipality to reserve a plot of land and are carrying out analyses and calculations, so there is another interested party here as well. Whether anything comes of it remains to be seen," Raave said.

The plans are still at an early stage, and it is not yet known whether or when the data centers will be completed. Estonia and the other Baltic states have fallen behind the Nordic countries in attracting large data center projects. So far, only one modern data center has been completed in Estonia: a facility owned by Greenergy Data Centers that opened near Tallinn in 2022 with a current capacity of 30 megawatts, though the project allows for three buildings.

Renewable energy company Sunly is also planning to build the largest data center in the Baltics in Lääne County, with electricity consumption of up to 180 megawatts and a total cost of €1.7 billion at full scale. That data center would account for 10 percent of Estonia's peak electricity demand.