SpainDC: ‘There is no Data Society without Data Centres’

SpainDC has celebrated International Data Centre Day, seeking to raise awareness in Spanish society of its critical importance to everyday digital life. During the event, the association wanted to highlight the significant growth of the sector in Spain, especially in areas such as Madrid, Aragon and Catalonia, and its growing contribution to the economy and the generation of skilled employment. Finally, a round table was held to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the sector, such as access to energy and the need for favourable regulation to achieve its maximum growth potential.

International Data Centre Day

In addition, SpainDC presented relevant economic data on the sector’s impact on GDP and job creation, as well as future growth projections in different scenarios, highlighting the need for investment in energy infrastructures to sustain this expansion and not lose competitiveness at European level.

Spain: The need to be competitive

Emilio Diaz, president of SpainDC, took the opportunity to express the association’s firm belief that Spain has a need to be competitive in the field of data centres, and reinvoked the importance of investment in electricity grids for Spain’s competitiveness, and that they should not be seen only as energy consumers, but as a competitive and necessary environment for digital transformation.

In terms of the association’s vision and based on the current and continuous ‘double-digit’ cloud growth and ‘welcomes’ AI to the sector, considering both fields as transformative elements for the sector and society, transforming the quality of life and the way of doing things.

In this sense, Díaz explained that these technologies demand more density per rack, which requires equipment suppliers to offer liquid cooling equipment and other ways of cooling the heat dissipated by the new artificial intelligence racks. He also pointed to the increasing difficulty of accessing power in time and mentioned the hope placed in the 2025-2030 plan for clarity on the situation and outlook.

Spain’s role in Europe

The President of SpainDc also pointed to its geostrategic position and telecommunications as reasons why Spain is attractive: ‘It is an absolutely strategic node, located in the middle of Africa, the United States, Latin America and Europe, and has good connections’.

Regarding the growth of the data centre sector, Díaz said that ‘it is growing at a sustained 21%. And we need to continue to grow at a sustained and aggregate 21% each year and over the next five years to meet demand.

Regarding Europe, ‘Spain represents 4% in Europe and it should be more. It is to be expected that in the future it will be larger in terms of economic volume, but there is a decreasing trend in the contribution or percentage of data with respect to Europe in the coming years,’ explained Díaz.

According to SpainDC data, the data centre sector contributed 2.49% to the GDP, generating 482,401 jobs and representing 2.33% of the total number of jobs in the Spanish economy. The data is broken down as follows:

• Total impact: 73,307.06 million euros.
• Indirect impact: 26,208 million euros.
• Direct impact: 4,245.97 million euros.
• Induced impact: 42,853.12 million euros.

The head of SpainDC wanted to emphasise the idea that ‘there is no digitalisation without digital infrastructure and that there is no data society without a data centre’. To justify this severe statement, he stressed the impact of data centres on the generation of quality jobs in different sectors, with technical and engineering profiles and ‘well-trained’ people.

Predictions for the development of the data centre sector

Concerning development scenarios, data centre investment forecasts for 2025-Post 2027 vary according to the regulatory scenario. In a favourable environment, direct investment would reach 43.783 billion euros and indirect investment 72.971 billion euros, totalling more than 116 billion euros. In contrast, a hostile scenario would reduce total investment to 33.584 billion. The baseline scenario stands at 58.386 billion, while hyper-regulation would amount to 34.863 billion.

Díaz explains that the regulatory impact would be key, as favourable regulation can double investment compared to a hostile environment. In the most cautious scenario, investment is estimated at €22 billion. The association’s data also highlight the strong growth post-2027, especially in the favourable scenario, where indirect investment would represent the biggest boost. This highlights the importance of policies that incentivise the sector to maximise its economic impact. In a very favourable scenario, this figure could reach 73 billion euros. Díaz believes that ‘there is virtue in the middle ground’.

Data from the data centre sector in Spain

The main data highlighted by Díaz, regarding the capacities of each region, Madrid leads with 200 MW, followed by Catalonia with 66 MW, Aragon with 38 MW and the rest of Spain with 57 MW, adding up to a total of 400 MW at national level.

SpainDc presents its predictions in four different scenarios, considered as valid estimates. In the most foreseeable scenario, it is estimated that Madrid could reach 1 GW in 2027 and beyond. In the same scenario, Aragon is predicted to overtake Catalonia, reaching close to 400 MW. Díaz wanted to qualify: ‘It is a conservative scenario’, believing that much more could be achieved if conditions were more favourable in terms of energy and permits.

In a very favourable scenario, it is considered that capacity could be doubled to 4 GW by around 2030, with some help in energy access and investment in electricity grids. In a less favourable scenario, figures of around 1.4 GW would be considered.

On volume demand by industry, the association forecasts that the sector will double the volume of data handled, transformed or moved, reaching 30 billion exabytes. This demand comes from a variety of essential industries such as transport, manufacturing, education, healthcare, financial services and public administration. And although Spain accounts for 4.6% of the volume of information in Europe, there is a decreasing trend in this share.