The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has triggered investor interest in data centers in several areas that have growth potential that the market has identified: Madrid and Barcelona, ??mainly (although there are also powerful projects in Aragón, Bilbao and Lisbon). Technologies such as Meta, Google, Amazon or Oracle; Socimis such as Merlin Properties; or energy companies such as Iberdrola and Endesa are focusing on the emerging Iberian market.
A data center is a large physical infrastructure that houses computing and communications machines. It can host messaging conversations, applications, banking or insurance information, among other services. A critical infrastructure, in short. José Guilleuma, director of data centers at Colliers, explains that it is also a market “intensive in electricity consumption, but natively sustainable and with efficiency engraved in its DNA.”
Spain is today a market with enormous growth potential, but still far from the big leagues of data centers: the United States (in Loudoun, Virginia, there is the largest hub in the world, with more than 3,000 companies; surpassing Silicon Valley in wealth), Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Ireland. By installed power, at the end of 2024 there will be a nationwide supply of 190 MW in Madrid and 54 MW in Barcelona. In the French capital alone there is already capacity for 600 MW.
Spain is located in the investment sector as “the most interesting emerging market in southern Europe,” says Francisco Porras, of Merlin Properties, a SOCIMI that has launched with force to build four large facilities. Given the saturation of other places, “our country has the perfect conditions” to scale and become a great hub to be able to serve the rest of Europe, South America, Africa and the Middle East, he adds. According to the sector’s employers’ association, data centers will contribute 60 billion to the national GDP in 2026. Today, companies have a global investment of about 15 billion. The consulting firm CB Insights estimates that demand will increase by 200% in 2023 alone.
Barcelona is a market that investors have set their eyes on because it is one of the markets with the greatest potential growth in southern Europe. “The advantage is the submarine cable, the proximity to a large population center and the availability of power,” explains Porras, referring to the Barcelona Cable Landing Station in Sant Adrià de Besòs. His Socimi, Merlin, for example, has built a data center next to the port with a direct connection to the mooring station and aspires to become the home of technological giants. “In the data center market, construction is not speculative, which is why the main operators struggle to reach agreements with the hyperscalers, that is, the big technology companies,” explains Guilleuma. Other companies that have installed data centers are Panattoni, AQ Compute, Interxion, Nabiax, Adam, Equinix, Edge Connex or Atlas Edge, creating several hubs between the city center and Cerdanyola del Vallés.
In Madrid, the market is more advanced. Several hyperscalars have been installed since the pandemic and have formed first-level availability zones. IBM, Google, AWS, Oracle and Microsoft make up an area that covers the center of the capital, Alcobendas, Las Rozas and the Henares Corridor. Merlin, for its part, has already built its own data center in Getafe.
The business challenge currently lies in the production and distribution of renewable energy so that data centers can grow with guarantees. “It is the most intensive market in energy consumption that exists,” says Merlin, and that requires “replanning the high voltage network,” adds Colliers.
It is an issue that the Ministry for Energy Transition and Redeia are working on together with several energy companies, Iberdrola and Naturgy, in Madrid, and Endesa, with an active role in expanding power in Barcelona.
“We are all working to strengthen the Iberian market and be able to compete in better conditions with other countries,” point out the same sources. It is a country challenge. The investor awaits decisions to confirm that Spain is in a position to scale and live up to the “Formula 1 of technology,” concludes Porras.
