The Government is immersed in conversations with the main technology companies to outline the conditions of the upcoming royal decree on data centers. The Executive maintains that the new requirements regarding environmental, energy, and digital sovereignty should not hinder the arrival of foreign capital or new projects in Spain.
Government sources indicated this Monday that the dialogue with the sector, framed within the public hearing process of the draft royal decree, focuses on closing the technical aspects of a regulation that will require larger data centers to back up at least 80% of their electricity consumption with new renewable capacity, certified hour by hour.
The Executive's intention is to achieve an acceptable balance for all parties, in a scenario where companies have been emphasizing that their facilities are already sustainable and guarantee the sovereignty of their operations and the data they manage.
The Government insists that this regulation will not imply a moratorium on new initiatives, which can continue as long as they comply with the established criteria. The obligations will apply to installations that exceed 1 megawatt (MW) of electrical power, due to their greater impact on the grid, the territory, and water use.
The text proposes that each new MW of electrical consumption be associated with an additional 1 MW of renewable generation put into service in the 18 months prior to the operation of the center, whether through self-consumption or through long-term power purchase agreements (PPA).
More than 12 GW pre-granted and the goal of ordering growth
National projections estimate that by 2030, around 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of computing power will be reached, while since 2021, more than 12 GW of access and connection rights to the electrical grid for data centers have been granted in advance.
For the Executive, this mismatch evidences the strong expectation generated around the data center business and the competition for available electrical capacity. The new decree aims to reduce the speculative component linked to the reservation and possible resale of those access rights, in addition to ensuring that the projects that move forward contribute employment and economic activity with the least negative impact possible on the environment.
The Government defends that Spain starts from a favorable position to attract this type of investments thanks to the abundance of renewable resources, electricity prices, and international connectivity, although it considers it essential to organize the expansion of the sector before it can generate tensions in the grid.
International references and digital sovereignty requirements
Currently, no problems of electrical supply linked to data centers are detected, but the Executive bets on anticipating possible tensions arising from the expected increase in demand.
In this context, the case of Ireland has been taken as a reference, where various reports indicate that data centers could come to concentrate up to 32% of the electrical demand, as well as the situation of some states in the United States, where that weight exceeds 25%. Limitations imposed in the Netherlands have also been mentioned.
The draft also incorporates obligations for energy and water efficiency and conditions of digital sovereignty, among them that the operation of the center and the associated data remain under the jurisdiction of the European Union.
The employers' association SpainDC warns of possible investment leaks
In parallel, SpainDC, the Spanish Association of Data Centers, has warned this Monday that the project to require renewable energy consumption from data centers poses a "risk of loss of investments" of up to 90% and demands "substantial changes" regarding it.
In a statement, the association has expressed its "concern" about the draft royal decree regulating the requirements for energy sustainability, environmental sustainability, and resilience and digital sovereignty applicable to data centers.
Specifically, it requests "substantial changes" before its final approval and announces that it will present objections to the text, as it considers that "Spain would be positioned as the country with the most restrictive regulatory framework in the European Union" and that the design, intensity, accumulation, and timeline of certain demands "could compromise real investments, hinder the viability of mature projects, and significantly reduce the competitiveness" of the country compared to other European markets.