The ministries of Ecological Transition and Digital Transformation have received multiple objections against the draft royal decree on data centres, a proposal that requires these infrastructures to meet 80% of their energy consumption with renewables for each hour of operation, and that threatens investments worth 69 billion euros.
According to the newspaper Expansión, among the objections are those from ACS, Acciona, Ferrovial, and Merlin Properties, four of the major data centre developers in the Ibex. The companies agree on the need to provide a legal basis for the development of data centres and to curb the speculation of investors who reserve land and electrical connections solely with the intention of reselling that right at a higher price. However, they complain that the regulation has been made without consulting the sector and with a long-term vision.
The royal decree has also sparked criticism from the Autonomous Communities that have the most investments in data centres committed. For this reason, Madrid, Cantabria, Aragon, Extremadura, and Andalusia have also submitted objections considering some of the conditions set out in the text too restrictive.
With the regulation, the Executive seeks to ensure that data centres in Spain adhere to the strictest standards of water and energy efficiency. If they do not comply, they may face increases in tolls or even the withdrawal of permission to connect to the grid. Additionally, it aims to reinforce the principles of digital and technological sovereignty, requiring data centres to ensure that both the management of the facilities and the data generated remain in the hands of organisations from the EU.
To develop the royal decree, the Government has based its approach on the experience of countries such as Ireland, Singapore, the Netherlands, and the United States, where the deployment of data centres has skyrocketed electricity prices and water consumption to exorbitant levels. According to the Irish Central Statistics Office, data centres went from consuming 5% of electricity measured in 2015 to 22% in 2024.
The Government has already held an initial meeting with Spain DC, the Spanish association of data centres, to analyse the proposed royal decree. Furthermore, the Minister of Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has committed to maintaining contacts to negotiate a text that compensates all parties involved. Nevertheless, Spain DC has already raised its objections to the draft royal decree with the Council of State. The association has sought to convey to the advisory body the position of major international tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, which are currently the main operators of data centres deployed in Spain.
Begoña Villacís, director of Spain DC, has commented that the new government regulation completely changes the rules of the game in the tech sector and “pushes data centres to leave Spain".
The CNMC has also entered the battle over data centres to clarify whether, as the association claims, some of the new rules proposed in the decree, related to tolls or access to the grid, may encroach on its competencies. The agency is gathering opinions from the sector, the administration, and experts to issue a report on this matter.
The journey of objections to the royal decree is expected to be long and tortuous. Data centres are an inevitable part of the digital economy, but the energy demand they require strains the system, already sufficiently pressured by the electrification of homes and businesses, to unprecedented levels. They consume millions of litres in evaporative cooling systems in a country suffering from structural droughts and face rejection from many communities that do not want a data centre near their homes.