Iberdrola and Echelon Data Centres have announced a joint venture to develop large-scale data centres in Spain, marking the largest binding agreement of its kind in Europe between an energy company and a data infrastructure developer.
Under the agreement, Iberdrola will take a 20% stake through its subsidiary CPD4Green. It will provide land with electricity grid connectivity and supply 24/7 clean energy to the data centres.
Echelon, holding the remaining 80%, will manage permitting, design, marketing and operations. Echelon’s main shareholder is Starwood Capital Group, a global private investment firm.
The venture’s first development will be the Madrid Sur project—a 160,000 m² data centre complex with 144 megawatts (MW) of processing capacity.
With a secured 230 MW electricity connection, the centre will be powered by a new on-site solar plant and additional renewable energy supplied by Iberdrola. The facility is expected to be operational before 2030 and create around 1,500 jobs.
“This agreement reinforces Iberdrola’s strategy of facilitating the development of data centres, which have already become a key vector for the growth in electricity demand,” said David Mesonero Molina, Corporate Development Director at Iberdrola.
David Smith, Chief Investment Officer at Echelon, added: “Entering the Spanish data centre market has been a strategic goal for Echelon for several years. Spain has material benefits for our customers: access to large-scale renewable energy with some of the lowest prices in Europe.”
Iberdrola currently supplies over 11 TWh of electricity to tech companies worldwide and, through CPD4Green, has 700 MW of data centre sites in Spain with the potential for 5,000 MW more.
Spain’s strong fibre optic and energy infrastructure position it as a leading data gateway to Europe.
Iberdrola and Echelon form joint venture to build large-scale data centres in Spain appeared first on Energy Live News.