Spain‘s Ministry for Ecologic Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has launched a public consultation process that could pave the way for new sustainability and energy efficiency requirements to be placed on data centres.
The draft royal decree, the public consultation period for which runs until 15 September, builds on the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (Directive 2023/1791), which requires member states to promote efficient and transparent practices in the data centre sector.
According to EU data, data centres accounted for 2.8% of the bloc’s electricity demand in 2018, and could rise to 3.21% by 2030.
Resource intensity
Both the EU’s Digital Strategy and Spain’s National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan 2023–2030 highlight the importance of ensuring that data centres are managed with lower resource intensity and higher transparency when it comes to their environmental footprint.
‘The goal is to ensure that these are highly energy-efficient and sustainable, as well as to adopt transparency measures regarding the environmental footprint of data centre operators to contribute to achieving the European Union’s energy efficiency goals,’ MITECO noted.
The draft decree would establish reporting obligations for operators of data centres with installed IT power demand above 500kW, while operators would also need to provide information on energy consumption, its origin and renewable share, water use, refrigerant types used, and the efficiency of resource use.
In line with Article 12 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, operators would also be required to report how they incorporate best practices from the European Code of Conduct on Energy Efficiency in Data Centres, and ‘must submit information on how they take into account the measures, actions, and criteria contained in the aforementioned Code of Conduct’.
Performance indicators
In addition, operators would need to demonstrate that any planned data centre facilities would be among the top 15% in their category in terms of performance indicators such as electricity and water consumption.
Required reports would also include the surface area occupied by the facility, contributions to grid resilience, and the socio-economic impact of the data centre, such as employment created and contributions to the local economy.
Once the consultation period is completed, MITECO will decide whether to amend the draft royal decree or proceed with final adoption, with parliamentary approval not required in this instance. Read more here.
