La falta de capacidad eléctrica lastra el potencial de España en nuevos centros de datos

Despite being one of the best positioned countries to attract significant investments in new projects, Spain's lack of electrical capacity threatens its opportunity. In an environment where data centers and edge computing are poised to reshape the digital economy landscape - as former Italian President Mario Draghi warned more than two years ago in his report - European countries are racing to attract multi-billion euro investments.

Spain is well positioned to capture up to €67 billion by 2030, according to the Spain Data Center sector association. However, this potential to become one of Europe's digital infrastructure epicenters clashes with the country's electrical capacity shortcomings. A report by Spain's Chamber of Commerce, exclusively accessed by EXPANSION, highlights that despite its privileged position to compete for the millions of euros in investments flowing into Europe in the next five years, power distributors are being forced to reject capacity requests for new projects.

The debate is no longer about whether we should digitalize, but about our ability to do so with the speed, scale, and ambition demanded by the new competitive context, says Spain's Digitalization Commission Chairwoman Idoya Arteagabeitia. She adds that data centers, cloud computing, and edge computing architectures are becoming increasingly relevant in this scenario.

Spain has a real opportunity to position itself as a leading digital hub in southern Europe, it asserts, as the country has the third largest fiber optic network in the Old Continent and is close to 30 submarine cable systems, causing more than 70% of the data traffic heading to Europe to pass through its borders. Spain's energy mix is another competitive advantage in a context where new regulations will consider the renewable energy sources powering data centers.

The government has pledged to make at least 80% of data center energy clean. Currently, according to Deloitte, solar power production costs in Spain are 25% lower than the European average, a significant factor considering that up to 40% of a data center's total costs are energy-related. Despite this, Spain's Chamber of Commerce report highlights serious deficiencies in the country's electrical infrastructure that could jeopardize its potential to attract new investments.

The lack of electrical capacity is identified as one of the main competitiveness hindrances, given that data center demand for capacity could quintuple by 2030. In 2024, distributors had to turn down requests for new projects equivalent to 40,000 megawatts. Specifically for data center projects, over 41% of energy capacity requests were denied, and for all new related projects, only 12% of the requested capacity was granted.

Meanwhile, 86.4% of Spain's distribution substations currently lack capacity to accommodate new projects, a situation that could divert investments to other markets, as the sector association has warned in recent weeks. Arteagabeitia stresses that strengthening public-private collaboration and creating a favorable environment for investment and the deployment of new digital capacities will be crucial, ensuring their impact reaches the entire business ecosystem, especially SMEs, to boost productivity, growth, and competitiveness.

The Chamber's report proposes eight lines of action to avoid missing the boat on an industry that promises to shape the future of the economy in the coming decades: strengthening existing infrastructure, administrative simplification, developing specialized talent, reinforcing the supply chain, improving cyber security and resilience, promoting sustainability, deploying connectivity infrastructures, and an international strategy to attract investment.