Renewable energy producer Edisun Power is building a large solar plant with a capacity of 941 MWp in the Madrid region, and which will be used exclusively to supply electricity to data centres. These types of facilities, which are large consumers of electricity, will increase their demand as a result of the development of artificial intelligence, and the Swiss company wants to ensure that the energy they use is renewable.

By making this decision, the company is responding to increasingly stringent European regulations for data centres to operate with low emissions, as required by the European Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). At the same time, it will leverage the growing demand for electricity due to increasing use of artificial intelligence applications to ensure the viability of its new solar power plant.

Project funding
The Fuencarral plant consists of three projects, for which the company already has access to the grid, having been granted connection rights, an environmental impact statement (EIS), prior administrative authorisation (PAA) and administrative authorisation for construction (AAC). Edisun is now acquiring additional development rights from Smartenergy to support its project. To secure the necessary funds, the company is selling its portfolio of projects in Italy, which has a total capacity of around 159 MWp, to Smartenergy.

To raise capital, Edisun has also initiated a process to encourage infrastructure funds, private equity, data centre owners and operators to invest in this large infrastructure. It is also currently in talks with a consortium of banks to finance the project’s construction. Smartenergy has agreed to buy back the Fuencarral plant from Edisun if the latter fails to raise the amount needed to finance it.

The Edisun Power Group has been financing and operating solar power plants in several European countries since 1997. It has a strategic partnership with the Smartenergy Group that supports its construction and project procurement activity. It currently has 36 solar power plants in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, plus a secure pipeline with a capacity of approximately 1.2GWp.

^{Photo: Edisun Power}