In recent years, Spain has become a leading destination for tech giants to set up their data centres in Europe. Madrid even aims to become a "digital hub" on the continent, like Germany and the UK. But at what cost to the environment? To cool down their servers, data centres consume billions of litres of drinking water: a huge worry in Spain, one of the countries worst affected by drought in Europe. Our correspondent Armelle Exposito investigates the environmental impact of these data centres.
Large data centres are multiplying in Spain. From Amazon to Meta and Microsoft, the tech giants have more and more plans to set up there, driven in particular by artificial intelligence. By 2030, Madrid forecasts €58 billion of investment from the sector, turning it into the digital hub of southern Europe.
To attract these centres, Spain is vaunting its underwater cable connections with other continents and its thousands of hectares of available land. The country is also one of the main producers of renewable energy in Europe, giving it cheap green energy. These arguments are successfully attracting tech giants looking for new land.
But the centres nevertheless consume a huge quantity of electricity. By 2030, they will be using double the amount of electricity used today, to reach almost 3 percent of the world’s total. Data centres also need billions of litres of drinking water to cool down the servers. It’s impossible to know precisely how much, since the tech giants don't like to communicate that information. This is a huge concern in Spain, one of the countries worst hit by drought in Europe.
Read moreAre claims that AI is accelerating climate change 'overstated'?
English (US) · 