Analysing the development of the Spanish Royal Decree
By Tu Nube Seca Mi Río and Observatorio Boira.
In recent years, data centres have started to take over large areas of land across, Spain, thanks to a favourable environment created by regional politicians who welcomed them and a lack of specific regulation. Recently, the central government announced a proposal for a national regulatory framework in the construction of new data centres, the «Proyecto de Real Decreto por el que se regulan los requisitos de sostenibilidad energética, medioambiental y de resiliencia y soberanía digital aplicables a los centros de datos» (Draft Royal Decree regulating the requirements for energy and environmental sustainability, resilience, and digital sovereignty applicable to data centres). The approval process for this regulation has been full of surprises, and we want to share this story to help others prepare for similar moves in other countries.
Between 2025 and 2026, Spain has been in the process of drafting and promoting its first national regulation on data centres (Draft Royal Decree), whose central objective is to transpose Directive (EU) 2023/1791 (Energy Efficiency Directive) and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364. The main reasons driving this national regulation are concentrated in three aspects: preventing the massive electricity consumption of data centres from causing a general increase in the price of electricity, preventing the saturation of the electricity network from generating risks to the supply, and controlling the increase in carbon emissions to meet decarbonization objectives.
The Spanish government and external technical reports warn that, without green energy restrictions, the enormous demand from data centres (especially during nights without solar generation) will force combined-cycle natural gas power plants to operate at full capacity, becoming the determining factor in the marginal price of electricity in the market, and this cost will be passed on to all consumers. Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition warns in its report to the Council of State that an uncontrolled influx of 10 GW of data centres would triple (+200%) variable electricity generation costs by 2030.
Similarly, while regulation cannot directly resolve the lack of physical grid capacity, its aim is to filter access through criteria, reserving limited connection capacity for high-quality projects that meet green energy requirements, thus preventing a large number of unqualified projects from consuming resources and putting pressure on the grid. Spain has granted more than 12 GW of grid access and connection permits for data centres since 2021, far exceeding the target of 2.5 GW of computing capacity by 2030.
The increase in natural gas consumption translates directly into a rise in greenhouse gas emissions, which directly conflicts with Spain’s 2030 decarbonization target and the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). Connecting 4,000 MW of data centres without restrictions would require burning an additional 45.89 TWh of natural gas per year, increasing emissions by 9.25 million tons of CO₂. The most extreme official scenario (10 GW uncontrolled) projects a 65% increase in emissions by 2030.
Chronology of regulatory attempts (2025-2026)
1. Initial public consultation and development (July 2024 – 2025)
Although the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO) initiated public consultation in mid-2024, the specific regulatory text did not begin to take form until 2025. According to parliamentary responses, in March 2025 the government confirmed it was drafting the Royal Decree to transpose Article 12 of the European Energy Efficiency Directive, in order to comply as soon as possible with the data reporting obligations established in the European Regulation.
As academics and collectives who publicly disclose the ecosocial impacs of data-centres, we issued a joint recommendation on this process and also requested meetings with governmental representatives. We didn’t receive a response from our representatives.
2. Publication of the draft and first clash (August 2025 – March 2026)
In August 2026, the Ministry for Ecological Transition published the initial draft for public consultation.
We found it very difficult to find the time to make the recomentations. As well as our talks, protests, research, submissions and legal proceedings, we were organising large-scale protests calling for a moratorium on data centres across Europe, which would see people taking to the streets in 15 countries, carrying out 90 actions. A moratorium was a poweful tool to stop all the devastating projects that are destroying our territories, and gives time to have de social debate that has not yet taken place. And time to create a proper corpus of regulation.
The initial proposal required data centres with a capacity of ≥1 MW to meet strict efficiency and waste heat reuse requirements, and linked access to the electricity grid to compliance with sustainability standards. In March 2026, the National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC) issued a report warning that the requirement for large data centres (≥100 MW) to be among the sector’s top 15% in efficiency was a dynamic standard, which would create regulatory uncertainty and could risk future investment.
The timing and the deadlines were an obstacle to fostering a genuine debate amongst the groups and collectives concerned; and, of course, there was no prior debate or information provided by the authorities either. Despite this fact, we were able to bring together dozens of resistance groups to submit comments on this regulation: 50 pages of recommendations.
Spanish data centre lobby groups (Spain DC) publicly voiced their opposition. They believed this was a “fatal decree” for the sector, as it could come into force before many of their projects had been approved. Lobby groups don’t like regulation.
At that time, in early September, we naively thought that we were facing a process to approve the Royal Decree that would take several months, during which the Government might listen to the concerns of the general public and take them into account. We even fantasized that they might be open to talking to the groups affected. There were still two years left in the parliamentary term, and the early elections would not be announced until spring.
But then the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid in mid-September changed everything. Maricarmen, the 87 year old woman who came to represent the injustice of housing access, gained public support that coalesced around groups such as the Sindicato de las Inquilinas. Their calls for action turned into a wave of public protests and demonstrations, which evolved into a sit-in in Madrid, followed by dozens in other Spanish and European cities including Porto, Lisbon, Dublin and Rome. The event also triggered political turmoil, and the Spanish government responded with two proposals to address the housing crisis. The measures didn’t gain enough support in parliament, and the government then decided to call a premature election
Naturally, we assumed the Royal Decree would not be approved, as there was no longer enough time, and hundreds of other bills were stuck in the parliamentary process for even longer. When journalists started calling us to ask for our position if the regulation were to pass, we realized it was set to be one of the few laws this government would pass before the elections.
3. Significant flexibility and new text (October 2026)
Faced with intense protests from tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, as well as industry associations such as Spain DC (which warned of potential losses of €240 billion in investments), the government submitted a revised text to the Council of State in October 2026.
Key changes included: raising the threshold from 1 MW to 10 MW; introducing a five-year transition period (until 2031) for data centres to gradually adapt to the 80% renewable energy requirement; and reducing the PPA contract requirements (from 10 to 6 years). As compensation, data centres that take advantage of the transition period must accept the «Automatic Power Reduction System» (SRAP) of the Spanish electricity grid operator, meaning they must accept disconnections without compensation in the event of grid overload.
In short, the regulation of data centres in Spain between 2025 and 2026 is a process of transposition with over-implementation. Spanish regulations are based on Directive (EU) 2023/1791, but go further in their implementation (gold-plating). For example, although the EU promotes the use of renewable energy, Spain is one of the few countries that requires 80% of energy consumption to come from renewable sources hour by hour (including nights without sunlight), which the industry considers an excessive burden that lacks support in the European Directive and harms Spain’s competitiveness.
As November started, we were still hopeful that the Royal Decree, albeit in a watered-down form, would be approved. We hadn’t expected interference from the European Union, which criticised the Spanish government for attempting to pass the data center regulation. According to the EU, the Spanish government is obliged to activate the TRIS mechanism and submit regulations affecting the digital sector for its review, The government failed to proceed accordingly.
Meanwhile, we in the social movements continued to engage in political action on the streets. For example, we organised protests in 18 Spanish regions, carrying out 24 actions calling for a Europe-wide moratorium on data centres. In total, there were 15 countries involved and 90 actions.
Position from social movements
From the perspective of social movements, we believe that this regulation, while ambitious and well-directed, is insufficient and arrives late. We hope, nevertheless, that it could be a starting point for further regulation for this sector. Unlike the relative flexibility of European legislation, Spanish regulations maintain strict additional requirements such as the «hourly correlation of 80% renewable energy» and «digital sovereignty,» generating significant controversy in the sector.
We welcome the fact that the revised text maintains the principle of conditioning network access on sustainability and sovereignty requirements.
We also acknowledge three significant advances: the recognition of European sovereignty frameworks (Art. 5.7), the redemption of guarantees of origin linked to the center (Art. 12), and public monitoring by the CNMC (Additional Provision 5).
However, the revised text generally lowers energy requirements (10 MW threshold, 36-month window, 6-year PPAs , PUE of 1.25), without addressing the demands regarding transparency, water, and land use raised in the previous process. Among its limitations, we hightlight:
- Off-grid data centres, which would be excluded from the Royal Decree.
- The lack of definition of absolute maximum limits in measures such as installed power or electricity consumption in the sector.
- The lack of land-use planning, ecosystem care, strain on water basins,
- The lack of information and efective public participation.
This Royal Decree, despite moving in the right direction, does not adequately plan the future of electrical infrastructure in the country or analyze how finite resources will be distributed between this sector and the rest of the economy.
Amid the climate crisis, we need stronger regulations across all industries – regulations that are well-planned and coordinated, with a long-term perspective. But especially, in the data-centre industry. These processes must also involve the participation of civil society in order to achieve the objectives of social, technological and climate justice.
We trust that this is the first brick in a protective legal wall that will shield us from the predatory practices of a voracious industry such as the data centre sector.