Swiss energy company Edisun has announced plans to build a 941MW solar park northwest of Madrid to provide power for AI datacentres.
The Fuencarral project is intended to meet the EU’s increasingly stringent requirements for low-emission electricity for data centres, as set out in the European Energy Efficiency Directive.
It also signals a shift in strategy, away from running many small solar farms towards managing a few large ones.
The Madrid datacentre market is one of the largest in Spain, accounting for more than 60% of capacity in 2023. Currently, the city has 18 server farms operated by 16 providers.
The scheme will consist of three standalone projects: a 390MW solar farm at Pradillos, a 291MW facility at Fuencarral and a third at Loeches with a maximum output of 260MW.
Edisun has secured grid access, an environmental licence and planning approval for the scheme, and will part fund it through the sale of its 160MW Italian project portfolio to Swiss-based renewables investor Smartenergy.
The company has started the process of finding investors to participate in Fuencarral. The company is hoping to attract interest from infrastructure funds, other private equity companies or data centre operators.
It has already entered into talks with a banking consortium to finance the construction of the project.
Edisun, which is listed on the Swiss stock exchange, owns 36 solar power plants in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal.
It has some 1.2GW of projects under development.
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