Spain is considering new rules that would make renewable electricity a central condition for large data centres connecting to the national grid.
Under a draft royal decree published in August, facilities with more than 1 MW of electrical capacity would be required to ensure that at least 80% of their electricity consumption comes from renewable sources. Crucially, the proposal would require that supply be connected to newly installed renewable capacity and matched against the data centre’s use hour by hour.
Spain’s 80% renewable electricity requirement
The proposal would require covered data centres to consume renewable electricity for a minimum of 80% of their total power demand. The threshold would remain in place until renewable generation accounts for more than 90% of Spain’s electricity mix.
For developers, the key detail lies in how the renewable supply would be measured. The draft sets out an additionality requirement, meaning new data-centre demand must be supported by new renewable generation rather than relying only on Spain’s existing wind and solar capacity.
Each additional megawatt consumed by a new data centre would need to be accompanied by a megawatt of renewable capacity installed in the 18 months before the facility begins operating.
The proposal also introduces hourly matching. At least 80% of a data centre’s electricity consumption in every hour of operation would need to come from renewable energy generated during that same hour.
This would go further than a system based on annual renewable-energy certificates or a yearly average. Data-centre operators would need to show a close connection between the timing of their power use and the availability of renewable electricity.
Why Spain is targeting data-centre energy use
The draft reflects the speed at which planned data-centre projects have grown in Spain, driven by demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital services.
Spain’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy estimates that computing capacity could reach around 2.5 GW by 2030. That would require between 3.5 GW and 4 GW of electricity demand, according to the government announcement.
However, the scale of industry interest is already considerably higher. Spain has granted more than 12 GW of electricity-grid access and connection rights to data-centre infrastructure since 2021.
The government argues that the country can use this demand to support digitalisation and EU digital sovereignty while limiting the environmental and system costs associated with energy-intensive facilities.
Its concern is that rising data-centre demand without an equivalent expansion in renewable generation could lead to greater use of natural gas to produce electricity. In turn, this could increase system costs and affect electricity bills more widely.
The proposed rules would therefore make the source of a project’s electricity as important as the availability of a grid connection.
Grid access could depend on meeting the rules
The government intends to make compliance with the draft requirements relevant to obtaining and retaining electricity-grid access and connection rights.
Data-centre projects would need to demonstrate that they meet the conditions before securing access to the grid. Operators that fail to comply could face progressively higher charges in network tolls and levies. In the final instance, they could lose their connection rights.
The government says these additional charges would be used to offset any extra costs imposed on the electricity system if projects did not meet the proposed additionality and hourly-matching rules.
There are also transitional arrangements for projects already working through the planning and grid-connection process. They would have six months to adapt and demonstrate compliance. Projects awaiting a grid-access tender would have three months.
Developers that decide not to adapt could surrender their access and connection rights without the associated guarantees being enforced.
Other proposed rules for data centres in Spain
The 80% renewable electricity requirement is the central feature of the proposal, but the draft royal decree would also introduce other environmental and digital-sovereignty measures.
Large data centres would be expected to meet high energy and water-efficiency standards. The government plans to apply the highest category in the upcoming EU efficiency labelling framework for data centres, which is expected to take effect in August 2027. The system will assess both energy use and water use.
The draft would also impose rules on the control and location of operational data. Operators of covered facilities would have to be established in the European Union, while data, metadata and operational records would need to remain in EU territory. The proposal also requires effective controls over access from third countries where that access is not protected by EU law.
Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation and Public Service would check compliance with these digital-sovereignty conditions. Serious breaches could ultimately result in the loss of grid-access rights.
The proposal also includes new reporting obligations. All data centres above 500 kW would have to submit annual information on energy efficiency and sustainability to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge for publication. Centres above 1 MW would additionally report on their use of the latest European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency.
The government has presented the proposal as part of a wider effort to guide the expansion of data centres towards projects that bring digital investment while placing lower pressure on Spain’s water resources, power network and wider electricity system.
