Spain proposes renewable energy mandates for data centers

The Spanish government is drafting a Royal Decree to regulate the growth of data centers, a sector critical to the development of artificial intelligence. To prevent these facilities from driving up electricity costs for consumers, the government proposes that data centers with an access power of at least 1 MW must cover 80% of their energy consumption through renewable sources.

These renewable sources must be linked directly to new installations, either through self-consumption or long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). The regulation specifies that associated renewable plants must be new and have entered operation no more than 18 months before the data center begins its activities.

There is ongoing tension between the government and the industry regarding energy demand. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition notes that while the national AI strategy anticipates a demand of 4 GW by 2030, connection requests have already exceeded 12 GW. Conversely, the industry association SpainDC argues that data centers currently represent only 0.8% of national electricity demand, totaling approximately 2 TWh, and suggests the government is regulating based on speculative future growth.