The strategic joint venture with Echelon Data Centres, a leading owner and operator of hyperscale data centre infrastructure in Europe, will see Iberdrola supporting the development of data centres within Spain.
This is the largest binding agreement of its kind in Europe between an energy company and a data centre operator when it comes to this type of infrastructure.
Under the terms of the partnership, Iberdrola will hold a 20% stake via its subsidiary CPD4Green and will be responsible for identifying and securing land with grid connectivity. It will also be providing 24/7 electricity to the sites.
Based in Dublin and owned by Starwood Capital, Echelon will hold 80% of the joint venture and will oversee development, design, commercialisation and day-to-day management of the company, both organisations shared.
“This agreement strengthens Iberdrola’s strategy to facilitate the development of data centres, which have already become a key driver for electricity demand growth,” says David Mesonero Molina, Director of Corporate Development at Iberdrola.
“The alliance signed with Echelon will allow us to leverage our portfolio of sites with grid connection and our capacity to provide these infrastructures with secure, clean and competitive energy 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Iberdrola says the first project as part of the joint venture will be Madrid Sur, a 160,000 m² complex offering 144 megawatts (MW) of data processing capacity, with a secured 230MW grid connection.
The centre is expected to create around 1,500 jobs and become operational before 2030. It will require one-terawatt-hour (TWh) of electricity, with this demand expected to be met by an on-site solar photovoltaic plant, supplemented by clean energy capacity from Iberdrola.
Iberdrola offers strong growth potential across both data centre and connectivity sectors, already supplying more than 11 TWh of electricity to technology companies and infrastructure operators worldwide. This helps to make it one of the leading providers of electricity to data centres across Europe.
Likewise, its subsidiary CPD4Green is focused on enabling the development of data processing infrastructure. Already, the company has a site portfolio with 700MW capacity in Spain and potential for an additional 5,000MW.
“Entering the Spanish data centre market has been a strategic goal for Echelon for several years. Spain offers significant advantages to our clients: access to large-scale renewable energy with some of the lowest prices in Europe and excellent construction and operational capabilities,” shares David Smith, Chief Investment Officer at Echelon Data Centres.
“Our partner, Iberdrola, is a global energy leader and we are delighted to have this opportunity to work together to deliver world-class data processing infrastructure for our clients.”
Spain has established itself as a critical gateway for global data traffic into Europe, particularly in recent years. Iberdrola cites that more than 70% of data traffic heading into the continent passes through Spain, given its strong fibre-optic network, submarine cable connections, access to clean and competitive energy and robust electricity grid.
The country’s data centre market was recently valued at US$2.25 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $4.30bn by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 11.40%.
Earlier in 2025, the country faced a significant power outage – one of the largest in European history – which exposed significant vulnerabilities in telecommunications infrastructure, particularly concerning backup power capacity.
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