Spanish power utility Iberdrola has set up a data center unit in the country.
Announced by Iberdrola's executive chairman in a conversation with investors and analysts, Ignacio Sanchez Galan, the company sees data centers as a major driver for its grids and renewable energy business, and wants to get involved.
Iberdrola expects to benefit from developing data center capacity for cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), and then selling them energy and connecting them to the grid.
"Demand for data centers is booming, and that is going to accelerate with artificial intelligence," said Galan.
He added that Iberdrola is planning to leverage its relationships with companies including Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
"I think it's good for us in both senses: in the sense of having new demand sources and having the opportunity of expanding our grid for those which require to be connected."
The company has ongoing contracts to provide eight terawatt hours of energy per year for data centers in Spain, the US, the UK, and Germany.
Earlier this year, Iberdrola was reportedly looking for partners for a joint venture that would see them develop 200MW of data center capacity in Spain by 2030.
According to reports, the energy company had a long-term goal of 1.2GW in capacity, and Iberdrola would seek to be the minority stakeholder.
Bilbao-based Iberdrola has more than 40,000 customers worldwide and manages grid capacity of more than 60,000MW. It is one of the largest suppliers of renewable energy globally and has Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with some of the biggest names in the data center industry.
In March, Iberdrola signed a PPA with Amazon, which will see the cloud provider buy wind energy generated at Iberdrola’s East Anglia Three offshore wind farm, off the coast of the UK in the North Sea. The two companies have also signed PPAs for wind and solar capacity in Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific. The power utility has also signed PPAs with Meta in the US.
Spain is set to see significant data center investment over the coming years. Both Amazon and Microsoft have pledged to invest billions in expanding their cloud computing and AI infrastructure in the country, primarily in the Aragon region.
