Barcelona accelerates in the data center market and increases its capacity by 68% so far this year.
The data center market in Spain continues its extraordinary progression during 2024, confirming that the start of new projects in the short term will add an additional 249 MW IT until 2026. This is explained in the Data Center Snapshot prepared by the global real estate consultancy Colliers, which analyzes in detail the evolution of this innovative market, focusing on the main locations of the peninsula: Madrid, Barcelona, Aragón, and Lisbon.
The data center market in Barcelona
So far this year, the data center market has grown by 68% in Barcelona in terms of installed IT power, going from 25 to 42 MW IT, with the commissioning of 13 MW IT in the data center by Merlin Properties, and the inauguration of Equinix’s second data center (BA2) with a capacity of approx. 4 MW IT.
Additionally, Barcelona has fully entered the radar of major international operators with the arrival of the submarine cable in Sant Adriá del Besòs combined with the current saturation of electrical capacity in the province of Madrid. In this context, Barcelona is perceived as an alternative to meet the demand of these operators in the Mediterranean.
Since last January, there have been very significant transactions such as the acquisition by AtlasEdge of land with secured power for the development of its second data center in the city, which once it reaches its maximum operating capacity will add 24 MW IT. For its part, CoreWeave, announced in June 2024 its plan to invest 2 billion dollars to expand in Europe and open a data center in the province, whose capacity has not been disclosed.
José Maria Guilleuma, Director of Data Centers at Colliers for the Iberia region, said:
These transactions demonstrate that major operators are already applying land reservation strategies in Barcelona, preparing for the arrival of demand in the medium term.
The Data Center Market in Madrid
The installed power in the Community of Madrid has remained stable at 164 MW IT until the third quarter of 2024. Despite the apparent stagnation, the increase in demand related to the AI revolution, along with the excellent fiber infrastructure in the northeast area of Madrid (A-1 and A-2 axes), has led to the announcement of data center projects that can multiply the installed capacity up to 4.8 times, going from 164 MW IT to 792 MW IT by 2030.
“The northeast area of the province of Madrid continues to be the main micro-location with a cluster effect, which is produced by the strong presence of “colo” operators. The A-1 and A-2 axes concentrate most of the current and future supply, although given the saturation of these areas, locations are beginning to diversify, also focusing on the southern area of Madrid” continues Guilleuma.
Data Centers in Aragón
Aragón has reached an installed operating capacity of 108 MW IT thanks to the commissioning of the first phase of data centers driven by Amazon (AWS), while the region’s pipeline stands at around 1,800 MW IT, once Microsoft and AWS complete their Cloud projects.
José Maria Guilleuma, Director of Data Centers at Colliers for the Iberia region, said:
The large plots of land available, with short/medium-term electricity supply.
“Its leadership position in renewable energy production at the national level, with 13% of all such energy generated in Spain, and the facilities that local administrations are granting to the main players in the data center market, are making Aragón gain recognition as the ‘Virginia of Europe’ and continue to attract significant investments”
Among these investments, the announcement by AWS for a new project stands out, in which it will disburse 15.7 billion euros in the coming years, aimed at building a network of mega data centers in Aragón. Microsoft also announced its third data center in Villamayor de Gállego (Zaragoza), a project that adds to the other 2 data centers announced in the Parque Tecnológico del Reciclaje and in La Muela, in which it plans to invest more than 6.6 billion euros. QTS, a company of the Blackstone fund, announced in June the construction of a 300 MW IT macro data center on a 200-hectare site in Calatorao (Zaragoza), with an investment of around 2 billion euros, and Box2bit will allocate 1 billion euros to the first renewable self-consumption macro data center in the region. The aggregate volume of investment announced to date in Aragón exceeds 25 billion euros over the next 10 years.
Data Centers in Lisbon
Lisbon hosts more than 50% of Portugal’s data centers, with key players in the region such as Equinix, Colt, and AtlasEdge. The year 2024 has given a boost to the data center market in Portugal, which had been stagnant since 2022. The installed and processing capacities as of September 30, 2024, are 16 MW IT and 146 MW IT, respectively.
During the first 9 months of the current year, several new projects have been announced, including an increase in installed capacity from 495 MW IT to 1.2 GW at the Start Campus DC. Equinix has also revealed plans to invest in Alcochete, a town in the Setúbal district located west of the Portuguese capital. Additionally, AtlasEdge has announced the acquisition of two adjacent sites in Lisbon where it will develop two data centers that will provide 20 MW IT.
Guilleuma, Director of Data Centers at Colliers for the Iberia region, said:
“The city has accelerated the pace of supply and demand in recent months, mainly due to its strategic position in terms of submarine cable network and the growing interest of several operators. However, this upward trend must be maintained in the coming semesters to appreciate the true potential of the city”
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Barcelona accelerates in the data center market and increases its capacity by 68% so far this year. source