Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) closed consultation on 10 September on a draft royal decree setting sustainability rules for data centres1. It covers sites with 1 MW or more of grid access. The ministry had already extended the consultation once, from 4 September, at industry's request.
The draft demands a PUE (power usage effectiveness, total site energy divided by computing energy) of 1.15 or less and a WUE (water usage effectiveness, litres per kWh) of 0.1. Supply must come 80% from renewables through a ten-year PPA (power purchase agreement) or self-consumption, with hourly matching, until Spain's grid passes 90% renewables. Repeated breaches can cost a site its grid permit.
Hourly matching carries the cost. An annual average lets a midday solar surplus cover a night shift on paper. An hourly test needs clean power bought for the same hour it is used, in every hour a server runs, which means storage or wind contracted alongside the solar.
Eva Valle, who runs Aragon's regional economy department, said on 11 September that no data centre could meet the draft2. She named Blackstone, Azora and Microsoft projects as exposed, in a region holding about 3,600 MW of granted grid access and about 108 MW built. Aragon's government is already defending its Amazon campus agreement in court, and the decree remains a draft.
