This summer, the company Green Mountain got the green light to build a data center for TikTok on the border between Hamar and Løten. The project is controversial, both because of the Chinese tenant, and because data centers like this require huge amounts of electricity – without giving very many jobs in return. According to a number of opponents. Green Mountain, on the other hand, has guaranteed that the TikTok center will provide at least 350 local man-years in the interior. If not, they promise to pay fines. They will make a similar promise if they are allowed to build an even bigger center – for a hitherto unknown customer – at Kalberg on Jæren. Here, the company guarantees 500 man-years. To last for at least ten years, news has seen the unusual agreement Green Mountain has made with Heggvin Utvikling, which disposes of the land on the border between Hamar and Løten. The agreement was a prerequisite for even saying yes to the plans for a TikTok centre: Green Mountain will establish around 70 jobs for each of the five planned construction stages – a total of at least 350 jobs. One workplace is defined as one man-year of 1750 working hours. These 350 man-years will operate the data centre. The construction of the center itself comes in addition. The annual workers must either be permanent employees or hired at Green Mountain, TikTok or one of their suppliers. All full-time employees must have a permanent place of work “on the property”, i.e. at the data center itself. The annual works must last for at least 10 years. Green Mountain must pay NOK 100,000 each year for each of the 350 jobs that will not come to fruition. In the agreement, there is also a clause that once a year Green Mountain must submit a report on how many people the data center has employed in the last 12 months, and this report must be approved by an auditor. This is the agreement: It is a prerequisite for this agreement that the implementation of the Buyer’s plans, during the development of all five planned construction stages, means that at least 350 jobs (full full-time equivalents) are established on the Property either through employment or letting from the Buyer, the Buyer’s customer or at the Buyer’s suppliers. The number of jobs will increase in line with the various construction stages and each construction stage must mean that at least +- 70 jobs are established. Documentation of this is provided as an appendix to the option agreement. The buyer guarantees the above. Full year’s work means 1,750 hours per year, with a permanent place of work at the property. The number of jobs per building stage will be maintained for at least 10 years from when the individual building stage is fully operational. In the event of a breach of the guarantee in this point, the Buyer must pay an annual additional remuneration of NOK 100,000 per year per missing man-year with a permanent place of work on the property in relation to the guarantee. At the end of the individual year, the Buyer shall, unsolicited, ensure that Heggvin Utvikling AS receives an auditor-confirmed statement of the number of full-time employees who have been employed by the Buyer in connection with the Property. The buyer must also provide overviews/estimates of all man-years that have been employed as a result of the operation of the Property. – Provides security Chairman Petter Myrvold of Heggvin Utvikling says that the agreement is unusual, but believes that it provides increased security that the sale of the land to Green Mountain actually provides many jobs locally. – It is an agreement with a large Norwegian limited liability company that we have confidence in fulfilling its obligations, says Myrvold to news. – What signals do you think Green Mountain sends through such an agreement? – They send a signal that the ripple effects from the data center are real. Chairman Petter Myrvold in Heggvin Utvikling. Photo: Jens Haugen / Anti – What do you think of the size of the “fine” – NOK 100,000 per year? – When we entered into the agreement, we thought the size was acceptable and expedient. Exactly what such a workplace is worth is certainly a matter of opinion, but an annual six-figure amount per workplace must be “usable”, as we say here. If a significant deviation from presumption should occur, we will at least be left with a compensation that is significant based on local conditions, says Petter Myrvold. 500 jobs at Jæren? On 9 October, Green Mountain presented plans for an even larger data center at Kalberg in Time municipality on Jæren. Together with a secret, international technology giant, Green Mountain wants to invest 50 billion in the centre, which they promise will provide 500 full-time jobs at Jæren – if the local politicians say yes before Christmas. Managing director Svein Atle Hagaseth confirms to news that the company envisages a similar agreement as in Hamar, with fines of the order of NOK 100,000 if promised jobs do not materialise. Time mayor Andreas Vollsund (H) is pleased: Mayor of Time, Andreas Vollsund (H). Photo: Lene Underhaug – There is a very concrete agreement in Hamar, and I am sure that we will be able to reach an equally concrete agreement in Kalberg. Here we can actually get a guarantee that they will create at least 500 jobs, which is historic, says Vollsund, who believes the agreement is completely unique. – Usually, when we agree to regulate an area, we never get a guarantee like this on the number of jobs, says the Time mayor. But not everyone is equally enthusiastic about Green Mountain’s willingness to pay fines for any breach of promise. – Strange agreement Gaute Bjørklund Wangen is associate professor at NTNU in Gjøvik and CTO at Diri AS. He has several times, including in a column in Hamar Arbeiderblad, criticized the data center industry for attracting an unrealistic number of local jobs. – Historically speaking, data center establishments in Norway have mostly broken promises about permanent jobs after the establishment has been completed, he believes. Wangen thinks it is positive to have a written agreement about a specific number of jobs, but he has doubts about how legally sustainable it is. He also thinks that NOK 100,000 is small for a lost man-year, and that the agreement appears “strange”: Gaute Bjørklund Wangen at NTNU. Photo: Frøydis Barstad / Diri AS – The aim of the establishment is probably for it to be profitable, not to maximize the number of man-years, wonders Wangen, who also questions whether Green Mountain can guarantee that the data customers and external suppliers will contribute the necessary man-years. – But do you think such an agreement seems reassuring to local politicians who have to say yes or no to such projects? – Yes absolutely. This probably seems reassuring, but it is uncertain how much this agreement is worth in practice, believes Gaute Bjørklund Wangen. Wants a fine of one million Ingrid Fiskaa from SV is a parliamentary representative, a local politician in Time – and a clear opponent of the data center plans in Kalberg. A promise of NOK 100,000 in fines for missing jobs doesn’t change that: – A hundred thousand NOK for a job that doesn’t come of anything is a pretty small sum in this context. So if there is a limit to those who welcome this data center, they should man up and ask for a much higher sum. Ingrid Fiskaa (SV). Photo: William Jobling / news – How tall? – If we had been up to an amount of one million or thereabouts, then we would in any case have been close to what it costs for a man-year. Then we started talking about something that might sting a little, says Ingrid Fiskaa.
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Get fined 100,000 for every data center job they don’t create – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
