Industry pushes back on Spain's draft royal decree for data centres

SpainDC, the Spanish data-centre association, argues that the draft royal decree regulating the sector piles up "demands impossible for any company to meet" and would be the most restrictive rule in Europe, warning it would also catch investments already under way with permits and power agreements. According to El Periódico de la Energía, the draft would require every hour of a data centre's consumption to be backed by at least 80% new renewable generation. Iberdrola España's chief executive separately calls for rules that attract that investment rather than "demonising" it. For anyone sizing generation or storage next to a data centre, that hourly 80% is the figure to watch.