Sustainability Obligations for Spanish Data Centers

In line with EU Directive 2023/1791 and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364, the draft Royal Decree proposes a set of measures aimed at fostering highly sustainable data centers. The main provisions are:

1. Annual notification (Art. 4). By 15 May each year, operators of data centers with a power demand of 500 kW or more must provide national authorities—for subsequent publication on the Ministry's website—with:

• The information required under Annexes I and II of Delegated Regulation 2024/1364 (including, among others, energy, ICT capacity or data traffic indicators, or information on water consumption); 
• A strategy to minimize environmental impacts, or updated data on its implementation; and
• A socioeconomic impact assessment, including calculations on employment generation, effects on the local economy, and information on the origin, destination of data and location of potential clients (on a country basis, without individual client identification).

2. Reuse of residual heat (Art. 5). Data centers with a nominal energy capacity above 1 MW must reuse residual heat, unless the authorities confirm that implementation is not technically or economically feasible. This obligation also applies to existing data centers, which will have three years from entry into force of the Royal Decree to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. 

The granting of municipal works permits and grid access/connection permits will be conditional upon a favorable report from the relevant regional energy efficiency authority on the proposed reuse plan. 

3. European Code of Conduct (Art. 6). Data centers above 1 MW must explain how they are implementing the EU Code of Conduct on Energy Efficiency for Data Centers. 

In addition, data centers exceeding 100 MW must rank within the top 15% of the sector's performance in terms of energy efficiency, water usage, energy reuse, and the share of renewable energy. 

4. Access to the electricity grid (Art. 7). Evidence of compliance with Articles 4, 5 and 6 will be a pre-condition for obtaining grid access and connection permits (or, for projects with existing permits, for signing the corresponding technical access contract—contrato técnico de acceso). 

It should be noted that these obligations may be subject to amendment during the legislative process. In particular, further clarity might be added regarding the regulation of the residual heat reuse obligation, given that its effective implementation would require the involvement of at least local and regional authorities, as well as potential third parties able to integrate such heat into their heating, climate control systems, or their economic activities.