Malaga TechPark to house largest data centre in Andalucía by 2030

Malaga TechPark is set to host a mega data centre, as per the announcement the Andalusian regional government made on Wednesday.

With an initial investment of nearly 1.26 billion euros, Madrid-based holding company Benbros is planning a facility very similar to their biggest project so far: the 150 MW electrical and 100 MW IT centre in Zaragoza, one of the largest in Spain.

Co-owners Rafael and José Benjumea's idea is for the centre in Malaga to have the same capacity as the facility in the region of Aragon. According to Rafael Benjumea, this will make it "the largest data center in southern Spain".

The developers are already working to expedite the urban planning and energy permits for the project. They are hoping to have it opened by 2030. For this to happen, the regional government must declare it a project of strategic interest, which would accelerate the bureaucratic process.

Benbros already has partners who will help finance the mega centre in Malaga. "We cannot reveal them yet due to a confidentiality agreement," the Benjumea brothers said.

Benjumea confirmed that the direct investment would exceed 1.2 billion euros, but the total economic impact would be much higher, since the end user(s) of the data centre (technology companies that will use it to power their cloud or AI models) will make their own investment in servers, microchips and other hardware.

"The user will invest two billion euros. We provide all the electrical and technological infrastructure for them to set up," Benjumea stated.

The project's development follows two paths. First, the urban planning aspect, which depends on the city council's approval of the partial plan for the expansion of Malaga TechPark.

From there, the process will continue with the development of the land and the purchase of the 71,000 square metres that Benbros needs from the technology park's management entity.

Second, there is the process of securing the electrical power that this gigantic digital hub will require.

A big question is whether Benbros can secure the energy the centre needs, given the difficulties both residential and industrial projects are already facing in obtaining electricity?

According to the Benjumea brothers, this "shouldn't be a problem", once energy companies REE and Endesa agree on the electricity grid mapping. "The great advantage we have here is that there's no competition for the substation we're assigned, so even though a tender has been formally issued, no other companies have submitted bids, which will accelerate the process," Rafale Benjumea stated.

"We're pushing to expedite both procedures," he said, estimating a timeframe of about four years to complete permitting and construction after the preliminary administrative steps.

Benjumea said that the rise of AI and the need for massive digital infrastructure have changed the rules of the game in the data centre sector. While Madrid and Barcelona have always been the cities to house such centres, the saturation there in terms of land and electrical power has opened the opportunity for peripheral locations.

"Today, Malaga has the potential to attract these types of projects, which in turn will draw the attention of international, national and local investors to the city," Benjumea said.

The choice of Malaga is not accidental: it responds to its industrial electrical capacity, an advanced technological environment and the "decisive support" of the local and regional authorities.