Spain grants special environmental exemptions for AI gigafactory

The Spanish government has submitted a revised royal decree to the Council of State that provides special treatment for strategic projects, specifically the artificial intelligence gigafactory in Mora la Nova, Tarragona. This mega-project, involving the Generalitat de Catalunya and private entities such as Telefónica, Santander, ACS, and Multiverse Computing, will be exempt from certain strict environmental obligations regarding water and energy consumption that apply to other data centers.

The move aims to secure European Commission subsidies and bolster the EU's computing capacity against dominance by the United States and China. The initiative seeks to mobilize approximately 5 billion euros in investment, utilizing a multi-site model with hubs in Tarragona and Madrid.

While the new draft relaxes some requirements, it maintains a core objective of covering 80% of consumption with renewable energy, albeit with a five-year transition period. Additionally, the threshold for general regulatory application has been raised from 1 MW to 10 MW, significantly reducing the number of facilities subject to these specific mandates.