Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge

Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, known as MITECO, holds energy, climate, environmental and demographic policy in a single national portfolio. It sets the rules that energy-intensive industry must meet; it does not run projects itself.

In 2026 it drafted national sustainability rules for data centres. The draft royal decree covers any site with 1 MW or more of grid access. It demands a power usage effectiveness of 1.15 or less and a Water Usage Effectiveness of 0.1 litres per kWh. Renewables must supply 80% of each hour's power, through a ten-year purchase agreement or self-consumption, until The National grid passes 90% renewable. Repeated breaches can cost a site its grid permit. The ministry extended the consultation once, from 4 September, at industry's request, and closed it on 10 September.

Aragon, which holds about 3,600 MW of granted data-centre grid access, said on 11 September that no data centre could meet the draft. By 8 October more than 600 submissions had arrived, and Spain's state advisory council had still to report on the text.