Data centres in Catalonia: the digital race meets the electrical reality

Can Catalonia become a digital hub without going dark? The Generalitat currently has 26 data centre projects on the table which, if all were built, would add up to more than 2,000 MW of capacity. But neither renewable energy nor the electricity grids seem ready for such a leap.

The central government has released a draft royal decree that sets the bar very high: new data centres exceeding 1 MW must cover at least 80% of their electricity consumption with new renewable generation, and do so on an hourly basis. The intention is clear: artificial intelligence and the digital economy should not compete for electricity with households, industry, or electric vehicles.

An energy challenge of unprecedented scale

The numbers are striking. Even just the most advanced projects could add between 300 and 500 MW over the next decade, which would mean between 1.8 and 3 TWh of annual consumption. If the announced 2,000 MW ever materialise, demand could soar to 12.3 TWh per year, or even 17.5 TWh if running at full capacity. For context: Catalonia consumed about 43 TWh of electricity in 2025, and only 9 TWh came from renewables.

So the question is direct: where will all that electricity come from? The decree says from new renewable installations, but the reality is more complex. Data centres operate 24 hours a day, while sun and wind don’t follow administrative schedules. Meeting the 80% hourly matching requirement means combining solar, wind, storage, and very sophisticated energy contracts.

Saturated grids and last-minute planning

The problem isn’t just technical. The regulation arrives when there are already dozens of connection requests and the electricity grids are saturated in many areas. Regional administrations have started to consider data centres as strategic projects, but energy and land-use planning are lagging far behind.

Catalonia is still waiting for the approval of PLATER, the territorial plan to organise renewables and their infrastructure. Its processing is delayed and it’s not expected to be ready before 2027. Meanwhile, wind and solar projects are progressing slowly, transmission lines are causing conflicts, and the future connection of the MAT from Aragón remains up in the air. All this, with the planned closure of Catalan nuclear plants, which currently produce half of the community’s electricity.

Are all data centres equally valuable?

The Generalitat has made it easier to process some data centres by considering them strategic, but it still lacks the energy and planning to support them. The central government, for its part, is now imposing very strict environmental requirements without having coordinated them with the autonomous communities, who manage the land and authorisations.

Neither the Spanish PNIEC nor the Catalan PROENCAT foresaw the pace at which demand linked to artificial intelligence would grow. Both plans were designed before the explosion of generative AI and the global race for digital infrastructure. Now, new demand from data centres is being added to the electrification of transport, industry, air conditioning, and hydrogen production. Everyone wants to decarbonise with renewable electricity that doesn’t yet exist in sufficient quantity or have the networks to transport it.

Prioritising what brings real value

It’s not about accepting all data centres unconditionally or shutting them out entirely. Nor is it enough to repeat that digitalisation is inevitable. These centres can bring technological capacity, digital sovereignty, and high value-added activities, but they also consume a lot of electricity and water, take up grid capacity, and generate less direct employment than investment figures might suggest.

That’s why it would make sense to decide which data centres the country really needs, where they should be located, what added value they bring, and what energy infrastructure they can guarantee. Priority should be given to those linked to research, public services, industry, supercomputing, or European technological autonomy, and much stricter criteria applied to those seeking only tax or land advantages to offer global services with little local return.

Necessary but rushed regulation

Regulation was essential and requiring new renewables makes sense. What’s debatable is imposing an almost immediate temporal matching without first developing the networks, storage, and land-use planning to make it viable. You can’t build a serious energy transition by piling up sectoral decrees that compete for the same megawatts.

The government seems willing to review some aspects after receiving more than a hundred submissions. Dialogue comes late, but at least opens the door to more realistic regulation. It’s not the first time planning has lagged behind investment: first the projects are announced, then their consequences are discovered, and finally the disorder is hastily corrected with new rules.

Meanwhile, digital and urban transformation continues in Barcelona. It’s not just data centres in the spotlight: other projects, like the renovation of CEM Can Felipa in Poblenou, also show how the city is facing major changes in infrastructure and services, as we’ve already reported here. The difference is that, in the case of digital energy, the margin for error is much smaller and the consequences much broader. If Catalonia wants to lead the digital economy, it will have to quickly decide what kind of data centre model it wants and how it will power them without leaving anyone in the dark.