The Government has submitted this Thursday to public hearing, through urgent processing, the draft royal decree that sets the requirements for energy, environmental, resilience, and digital sovereignty sustainability for data centers, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
The text, which can receive allegations from today until September 4, states that data centers must cover with new renewable generation, and on an hourly basis, at least 80% of the electricity they consume throughout their operation.
The project has been jointly prepared by the Ministries for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge; Economy, Trade and Business; and Digital Transformation and Public Function, after the Council of Ministers approved its urgent processing last Tuesday.
This regulation aims to organize the deployment of data centers in light of the strong increase in projects under study, guaranteeing high standards to provide legal security and encourage investment.
To design the regulation, the Executive has analyzed the problems that have arisen in other countries, such as Ireland, Singapore, the Netherlands, or the United States, and believes that now is the right time to anticipate regulation and avoid those risks.
The proposal includes obligations regarding resilience and digital sovereignty, including that the operation of the center and the control of the data associated with that operation fall under entities subject to the law of the European Union. It also incorporates requirements for environmental and energy sustainability, such as the consumption of newly implemented renewable energy and compliance with energy efficiency and water use criteria.
The goal is for these facilities to comply with the strictest standards of water and energy efficiency, while reinforcing digital sovereignty, technology, and computing capacity.
Although Spain has an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy that foresees about 2.5 gigawatts (GW) of computing capacity for 2030, which would require between 3.5 GW and 4 GW of electrical demand, the requests and permits for this type of infrastructure far exceed that horizon. The geographical position of the country, its climate, and renewable potential have led to more than 12 GW of access and connection rights to the grid being granted since 2021.
The regulation establishes the requirements for installations exceeding 1 MW of electrical power, considered to have the greatest territorial, water, and environmental impact, with the aim that Spain can select the data centers that provide the greatest benefits with the least possible impact.
INCREASING PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE
In the energy sector, and following the logic already applied to the production of non-biological renewable fuels and renewable hydrogen, the project introduces the obligation for data centers to consume renewable energy at a minimum of 80%, until renewable generation exceeds 90% of the electrical 'mix'.
This consumption must be additional: each new megawatt (MW) of electrical demand must be backed by a new MW of renewable power installed in the 18 months prior to the start-up of the 'data center', either through self-consumption or through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).
The supply will be verified hour by hour, so that, in each hour of operation, at least 80% of the electricity used must come from renewable generation produced in that same time slot.
Likewise, data center projects requesting access to the electrical grid must demonstrate that they meet these conditions to obtain access and connection rights.
Non-compliance with the requirements will result in increasing surcharges on the corresponding charges and tolls and, ultimately, the loss of access rights. These increases will compensate for the extra cost that non-compliance with the obligations of additionality and hourly correlation of renewable consumption may transfer to the system and, therefore, to the electricity bill.
CONDITIONS FOR ACCESS TO THE ELECTRICAL GRID
Data center projects currently under processing will have six months to adapt to the new conditions and prove their compliance —three months if they are pending a grid access auction—, or they may renounce their access and connection rights without execution of the guarantees.
Given the high water and energy consumption of these infrastructures, it is established that they must comply with the best levels of energy and water efficiency of the specific European labeling for data centers, which is being developed by the European Commission and is expected to come into force within a year.
The proposed royal decree provides that, once that labeling is active, the highest level of the European standard, category 'A', will be required, both in energy efficiency and in water efficiency.
In the chapter on resilience and digital sovereignty, obligations are established such that the operation of the center and the control of the data linked to that operation fall on entities subject to EU law, that the data, metadata, and records processed as part of the operation remain in community territory, and that access from third countries is effectively monitored.
RESPONSIBLE DECLARATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
Digital Transformation and Public Function will be the department responsible for verifying compliance with these requirements, the violation of which may ultimately result in the loss of access and connection rights to the electrical grid.
In this way, all data centers that exceed a certain threshold must submit a responsible declaration in which they commit to respecting the established digital sovereignty criteria.
Furthermore, 'data centers' that intend to host information from any Public Administration or related to national security must formally commit that this data will not leave the European Union (EU).
All data centers with a power greater than 500 kilowatts (kW) will be required to submit annually to the Ministry led by Sara Aagesen the information related to their energy efficiency and sustainability, for publication. Those that exceed 1 MW must add whether they comply with the best practices outlined in the most recent version of the European code of conduct on energy efficiency for data centers and detail how they do so.