The counselor of Economy, Competitiveness and Employment of the Government of Aragón, Eva Valle, stated this Friday in the plenary session of the regional Cortes that the project of Royal Decree on data centers approved by the central Executive sets "such demanding conditions" that "makes it almost impossible" to develop this activity in Aragón and in the rest of the country. Valle's intervention occurred in response to an interpellation from the socialist deputy Carlos Dueso.
According to what she has stated, "this Royal Decree establishes such demanding compliance conditions that it makes almost impossible the installation of data centers throughout the country, of course, also in Aragón," since "the conditions it demands are unmanageable and cannot be met with the current state of technology, constituting in practice a true prohibition on the activity of an entire sector and causing Spain to withdraw from the playing field in attracting data centers and for these to end up moving to neighboring countries, such as Portugal, which benefits from our own electricity generation."
Valle has reminded that data centers "are located where companies find the most suitable conditions to develop." She has emphasized that "Aragón has been able to attract a very relevant part of those investments because it brings together a combination of factors that is difficult to match: a strategic geographical position, availability of land, renewable generation capacity, industrial tradition, institutional stability, logistical and connectivity capacity" and a business fabric increasingly oriented towards technology and the digital economy, "which is both the cause and result of these investments."
The counselor has stressed that the Administration must foster a favorable framework for investment, guaranteeing connectivity, energy supply, access to networks, availability of land, as well as administrative agility and legal security, in addition to "a stable regulatory environment." She has also defended that it is the responsibility of public authorities to promote the arrival of high value-added activities associated with this new industry.
In parallel, he has insisted that "public administrations must effectively guarantee that it is done with the efficient and sustainable use, the most efficient and most sustainable possible, of the available resources and with adequate protection of the data: This is precisely what we are doing from the Government of Aragón in the scope of our competencies."
Valle has emphasized that "this is not only the responsibility of the Government of Aragón," pointing out that "the ability to access the transport network of all economic activities is the responsibility of the Government of Spain." In his opinion, "what we find is that we have a colossal problem of access to the electrical system, which affects any type of activity, productive or not, also housing, and this is due to the inability of the Government of Spain to plan, execute, and manage the energy transport network." He has warned that the "unprecedented dynamism" of Aragón "can be severely affected by this lack of planning."
In this line, he has lamented that, "despite the immense work that the Government of Aragón is doing, it seems that we are alone, it does not seem that the action of the Government of Spain accompanies us."
Criticism from PSOE on the data center model
Carlos Dueso has made it clear that he does not want "Aragón to become a desert full of data centers" and has claimed the policy on this matter of the previous regional government led by the socialist Javier Lambán, to whom he has attributed the promotion of these projects while "he made Aragón a community at the forefront in other sectors, such as logistics and the agri-food industry."
The PSOE deputy has stressed that "one thing is to attract investments and another very different is to plan them" because "regulation is not a whim," warning that "one megawatt for a data center is one megawatt that does not have a traditional Aragonese industry."
Regarding the draft Royal Decree that will regulate data centers, Dueso has reproached the councilor that the 'popular' "opposed the one for 2025, oppose the one for 2026, and will oppose any that the PP does not present."
The socialist parliamentarian has raised a series of questions to Valle about the impact of these facilities: he has asked "how much electricity and how much water each of the data centers is going to consume; where that energy and that water come from; under what conditions; what will happen in a year of drought; whether data centers or farmers and ranchers will have preference; how much employment will remain in Aragón once the works are finished; how much real benefit stays in the territory; what verifiable return this Government has demanded from each data center and how much the Town Halls stop collecting."
Dueso has also questioned the strategy of the regional Executive by asking the counselor: "What is your industrial policy? What model do you have for the implantation of data centers, but also for the implantation of industry? Because we see announcements of announcements of data centers, but we do not know the criteria and the plan under which they are implanted. Or is it that there is no plan at all?".