Overview
- The government circulated a draft urgent real‑decree and met industry groups on Wednesday to present new selection rules that will go into a public consultation phase.
- Under the draft, sites above 1 MW must secure the EU's highest datacenter label and meet strict tests on energy additionality, hourly renewable sourcing, water use and data sovereignty.
- A headline requirement would force each new megawatt of datacenter demand to be matched by the same capacity of renewables and to source about 80% of consumption with hour‑by‑hour verified renewable generation.
- Projects already in the pipeline would have six months after publication to prove compliance or forfeit their right to connect to the grid, a change the government says is proportional and not retroactive.
- Industry bodies SpainDC and Ametic warned the tougher rules could hurt project viability, create investment uncertainty and push some planned investment to other European markets while renewable producers could gain from long‑term offtake deals.