Aragon is one of the renewable batteries from Spain. That ability to generate energy has put it in the sights of Big Tech that want to establish themselves in Europe with a clear objective: create more data centers. The shark here is an Amazon that has been operating in the region for a few years, but for which the panorama has just opened to achieve what it has been pursuing for some time.
Turn Aragon into the “Spanish Virginia”.
In short. This is not a simple comparison, since the US state is one of those with the largest concentration of data centers in the world. In Aragon we are about to see something similar. Amazon, via AWShas been operating since November 2022 in the region with data centers in Zaragoza and Huesca. However, the fever for data centers is more recent and the American giant has been behind permits for some time to be able to build more.
As they point from El Periódico de Aragón, after the authorizations that the project has been obtaining in the last two years, Amazon will be able to start building. This is an operation that, until now, had been limited to preparing the ground, but with the unblocking of the operation carried out this past Monday by the Government Council, Amazon will be able to begin building the facilities.
Extension. This falls into the PIGAthe General Interest Plan of Aragon, will not be limited to the data centers planned in Villanueva de Gállego and Huesca. The idea is that AWS occupies about 800 hectares with around thirty data centers, 10 electrical substations and 12 buildings, and it is something that is being developed in parallel to the plan to deploy data centers in Walqa, San Mateo de Gállego and La Puebla de Híjar.
Jobs and money. Landing these plans, during this year’s Mobile World Congress, the American giant advertisement that their plan is to invest 33.7 billion euros in Spain (at the MWC they stated that they were going to double their initial investment) to expand their data center infrastructure in Aragon between 2026 and 2035. The total investment will contribute 31.7 billion euros to Spain’s total GDP until 2035 and will be esteem that the employment impact will be 29,900 full-time employees.
Focusing on Aragon, this operation is expected to contribute 18.5 billion to the region’s GDP and provide employment to 13,400 people. These employment calculations include those of local companies, direct, indirect and induced. It’s not that Amazon is going to create 30,000 jobs out of nowhere and long lasting.
Energy. Here comes one of the most important questions: whether Aragon, no matter how much renewable energy it has, will be able to face the gluttony of data centers. Because these data centers, in different parts of the computing process, need energy spikes that we are already seeing how they are covered in other countries: gas, nuclear and… coal. In fact, just scaling AWS will add more than 10,800 GWh per year, more than all current electricity consumption of the community.
There has been a lot of debate about the water consumed by data centers and, although the figure is not negligible, the energy cost is much higher. And that is where there is some confrontation between the local industry and Amazon’s plans, because there are those who they claim that the concentration of electrical consumption of AWS and green hydrogen macroplants will brake the development of more traditional renewables.
Reviews. And then there is the rejection on environmental issues. More and more we see that there are municipalities that They don’t want to live next door of data centers and it is noted that one of the giant’s projects will be based on protected land. The speed at which permissions have been given to Amazon is also criticized.
And, then, there are other issues such as the studies that are appearing little by little and that highlight both the acoustic and thermal pollution of these data centers. It is something that is being measured in various parts of the world and, precisely, in some Aragonese towns near centers of data an increase has been observed of 2°C in surface temperature.
Not just Amazon. AWS is an example of the ambitious plans in the region, but they are not the only ones. The community is consolidating as one of the ‘lungs’ of hyperclimbers in Europeas well as one of the key regions of Spain for the expansion of data centers and European technological sovereignty
Images | amazon
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