Aragon, Spain, Europe's new cloud storage oasis July 17, 2024

The world's biggest technology companies are investing billions in cloud storage facilities in Aragon, in northeastern Spain Valentin BONTEMPS

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Aragon, Spain, Europe's new cloud storage oasis

Zaragoza, Spain, July 17 (AFP) July 17, 2024

The world's biggest technology companies are investing billions in cloud storage facilities in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain, attracted by the abundance of renewable energy sources.

While local authorities hope to reap the economic benefits of the growing data demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, environmentalists have criticized the large amounts of water and energy that data storage consumes.

Until recently, Aragon "wasn't on the global connectivity map.

But today everyone knows where it is," said Manuel Gimenez, executive director of an association that brings together 170 data center companies.

At the end of May, Amazon said it was investing 15.7 billion euros ($17 billion) in the region through its AWS cloud computing division to expand its three existing data centers in Aragon, installed since 2022.

Earlier in July, Microsoft said it was investing 2.2 billion euros in a major data center project, bringing its total investment in the region to 6.7 billion euros.

And Spanish media reports said that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, would soon do the same.

These investments are part of a strategy by the big tech companies to increase their storage capacities to meet the incessant demand for generative artificial intelligence, which has significant data requirements.

- Europe's Virginia

"This is a great opportunity and we must make the most of it," said Maria del Mar Vaquero, deputy leader of the Aragon region.

She believes that Aragon's success in the field is due to the abundance of land available at low cost and the good connections with Spain's economic centers in Madrid, Barcelona, and the north of the Basque Country.

This is complemented by the vast array of solar and wind farms scattered across its sunny but sparsely populated territory.

For Amazon, the fact that all its energy needs can be met "with 100% renewable sources" helps it achieve its sustainability goals, the company said, while also highlighting the "institutional trust" offered by the Aragonese authorities.

The regional government has created a specific department so that "bureaucracy is not an obstacle for these types of projects" and will establish "legal certainty" for companies, said Vaquero.

The aim is to turn the region into a "European Virginia", she added, referring to the eastern US state that has established itself as a global hub for data centers.

- Environmental impact

However, the spread of data centers in the region also has its detractors.

Ecologists claim that these facilities are very expensive in terms of electricity to run the equipment and water to cool it.

Although "it's difficult to have exact figures, we know that consumption levels are enormous," said activist Aurora Gomez, warning of the risks of "uncontrolled" development.

Gomez is part of a protest platform called "Tu nube seca mi rio" - "Your cloud is drying up my river" - which denounces the environmental impact of data centers.

"Spain will be one of the countries hardest hit in terms of climate change and desertification. We have to be very careful," she said.

Other critics question the economic benefits of these centers, which Gimenez's data center association rejects.

"The positive impact of the data center sector on GDP and employment is obvious," said Gimenez, calling it "even greater than that of the aeronautics sector".

With competition for investment fierce among Spain's 17 regions, the Aragonese government has launched a huge 42-hectare (104-acre) technology park project on the outskirts of Zaragoza.

Although it has the sector's heavyweights in mind, it has also been designed to meet the needs of start-ups and public research institutions.

"In Aragon, the main sectors have traditionally been agri-food, logistics, and the automotive industry," said Vaquero.

But with the investments that are coming in, his vision is of an Aragon where technology becomes "an engine for economic transformation".

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