Jug of cold water for Iberdrola in the middle of August. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has denied environmental authorization to the FV Aceca mega solar park in Toledo, mainly due to its impact on fauna due to its proximity to an imperial eagle nest, a protected species. For Iberdrola, the decision not only knocks down a photovoltaic asset with enormous potential, it is also a torpedo in the waterline of a 2 billion euro strategy to build large-scale data centers south of Madrid.
Iberdrola began processing the park in December 2022, when it requested the declaration of public utility. The country's largest electricity company wanted to take advantage of the electrical infrastructure of its Aceca combined cycle gas plant, in Villaseca de la Sagra, to deploy more than 700,000 solar panels in the surrounding area with an installed power of 347.51 megawatts (MW). But, as a result of the artificial intelligence boom, the project had gained new strategic weight for the company, which has great plans to lead the development of data centers in the area of influence of the capital of Spain.
The outlook for the photovoltaic generation business has taken a turn since 2022. Today, the increase in hours at zero or negative prices in the electricity market and the increasing restrictions on production due to network limitations are disrupting the business plans of promoters. But, in recent years, a window has also opened for generators: data centers.
These new players are true devourers of electricity and have put Spain in their target. They need a huge volume of energy, preferably clean, 24 hours a day... and they are willing to pay a good price for it. In the case of Iberdrola, the energy company itself has fully entered the data center business, with the border between Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha as a priority area.
Last year, Iberdrola signed a binding agreement with the Irish data center developer Echelon to mobilize around €2 billion, through a joint venture, to develop this type of assets in Spain. Iberdrola, owner of 20% of that subsidiary, was in charge of identifying and securing land with connection to the grid, as well as supplying energy to future processing centers.
Both partners marked a starting point: “Madrid South”. As announced at the time, the alliance's first project would be a 160,000 square meter, 144 MW complex for data processing, with a 230 MW electrical connection already secured. The multinational indicated that the electricity demand of this data center was going to be covered by "a photovoltaic solar plant that will be built on site", complemented with extra capacity from the Spanish energy company.
As reported by CincoDías, the idea was to locate this first data center in the vicinity of the Aceca combined cycle power plant, almost on the border between Toledo and Madrid. Precisely, the place where Iberdrola planned to build the mega solar park that the Government has just stopped.
The Ecological Transition resolution puts a damper on the plan of Iberdrola and its Irish partner. The ministry led by Sara Aagesen argues certain impacts on the fauna, among them, that the western sector of the plant was projected a few meters from an active Iberian imperial eagle nest, which made the installation "critical and incompatible" with the conservation of an endangered species. Furthermore, it considers that Iberdrola made an "inadequate and insufficient" assessment of the alternative locations, prioritizing "technical or economic variables unrelated to fauna."
After four years of bureaucratic journey, the Ministry has returned the project to the starting point. To a large extent, because by not obtaining administrative authorizations within the period established by law, Iberdrola's photovoltaic access and connection permit has expired, as Red Eléctrica informed it at the end of June.
