In drought-hit Aragón, communities worry about water as nearby servers guzzle millions of litres to stay cool. Madrid now wants new data centres to prove they deserve a place in Spain’s dry landscape. The decision echoes beyond Spain, as the EU races to build AI infrastructure without draining its driest regions.
The rules did not appear out of nowhere. Developers have raced since summer to lock in sites across Spain, and Madrid wanted guardrails before the boom put further strain on the grid and water supplies. It follows a wave of projects that has already turned Spain into one of Europe’s most sought-after locations for artificial intelligence infrastructure, backed by tens of billions of euros in investment.
Spanish ministers approved the draft decree in cabinet on 25 August, under an emergency procedure. It sets binding conditions on water use, energy sourcing, and cybersecurity. The move builds on a March energy-security law, passed in response to the Middle East crisis.
The draft requires operators to establish themselves within the EU and keep any data or metadata they process inside the bloc, with safeguards against unauthorised access from third countries. Renewables must cover at least 80 per cent of a data centre’s electricity demand on an hourly basis. For every new megawatt of demand, operators must also add a matching megawatt of renewable capacity built in the previous 18 months. Companies that fail to comply risk losing their right to connect to the grid.
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Thirsty machines, dry land
Nowhere is the tension sharper than in Aragón, a landlocked region between Madrid and Catalonia that has become one of Europe’s favoured sites for hyperscale data centres. It is also one of Spain’s driest corners. Amazon Web Services has said that each of its three centres there can use up to 53.9 million litres of water a year, and the company has sought permits to expand further.
Local campaigners are led by Aurora Gómez, under the banner Tu Nube Seca Mi Río, or Your Cloud Is Drying My River, and accuse authorities of approving hyperscale projects even as farmers seek subsidies for crops lost to drought. Catalonia, further north, has declared its own drought emergencies in recent years, rationing water for tens of thousands of residents. Campaigners argue their region is becoming what one described as a ‘sacrifice zone’, absorbing the environmental cost of a digital economy that serves users elsewhere.
Spain is not merely hosting private investment. It is also bidding to host one of the EU’s planned AI Gigafactories, part of a network of up to seven mega-facilities that Brussels wants operational within a few years. The programme aims to more than double the bloc’s computing capacity and reduce its reliance on foreign infrastructure.
The scale of the challenge is already substantial across the EU. Data centres account for close to three per cent of the bloc’s electricity demand, a share the Commission expects to keep rising as AI models grow larger and more power-hungry. Governments increasingly fear that public support for the technology could falter if communities feel they are paying the environmental price for other people’s convenience.
Brussels drafts its own rulebook
Spain’s decree pre-empts a broader EU framework already taking shape. The Commission is finalising a mandatory sustainability rating scheme for data centres under the bloc’s energy efficiency rules, due to start issuing labels from 15 August 2027. Under Spain’s draft rules, new data centres would need to earn the scheme’s top ‘A’ rating, similar to the energy labels already familiar from household appliances.
Officials in Madrid say the national rules mirror requirements already used for green hydrogen production, applying the same logic of matching new demand with new renewable capacity in real time. That approach goes further than the EU’s own scheme, which so far focuses on reporting and labelling rather than binding energy targets. Should Brussels tighten its rules to match, Spain’s approach could become a blueprint for other member states racing to attract AI investment without provoking a backlash at home.
A strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates.
— Henna Virkkunen, Commission Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy
For Brussels, the calculus is straightforward: AI infrastructure is now treated as strategic infrastructure, and strategic infrastructure needs public buy-in to survive. Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, has called the continent’s growing computing capacity “a strategic necessity for Europe as AI development accelerates”. Whether that necessity can win over communities anxious about water shortages may decide how far Europe’s AI ambitions can actually stretch.
