Spain has been rising through Europe’s digital ranks, but its biggest missing link has always been a unified energy-and-data-center strategy. The new €2 billion joint venture between Iberdrola and Echelon Data Centers– Echelon Iberdrola Digital Infra, finally gives the country that missing piece, and it signals a shift that deserves attention.
The JV’s choice to prioritize hyperscalers and AI-infrastructure providers says everything about where Spain wants to compete. Europe’s biggest growth story is AI compute, and this partnership is positioning Spain at the center of that demand curve.
Madrid Sur illustrates this shift in priorities. The project spans 160,000 m² and is equipped for 144 MW of processing, anchored by a secured 230-MW grid connection. It will support an estimated 1,500 jobs and demand around 1 TWh, but the real differentiator is energy independence: a dedicated photovoltaic solar plant plus additional renewable supply from Iberdrola to fully cover the site’s electricity consumption.
Over 70% of data traffic entering Europe already routes through Spain, thanks to its dense fiber and submarine cable network. Yet until now, the country lacked a unified energy-infrastructure model capable of supporting the scale demanded by AI and hyperscale workloads. Iberdrola brings that missing depth- 700 MW of grid connections around Madrid and plans to invest billions more, while Echelon adds design, operations, and market execution. Together, they address the single biggest bottleneck facing data center expansion: dependable renewable power.
This partnership reflects a wider truth in the AI era: data centers are increasingly power projects before they are real estate projects. Spain appears to be embracing this reality sooner than most.
If the model works, it could become a template for sustainable hyperscale development across Europe and solidify Spain’s role as a primary digital hub.
