(Bloomberg) — EDP SA may use the land of its coal plants in Spain that will be decommissioned for data centers as artificial intelligence drives demand for new computing capacity.
The Portuguese utility previously had plans to build hydrogen and battery projects at some of the locations. But with the rise in AI, the firm is now considering to house data centers as the grid connection is so valuable, Chief Financial Officer Rui Teixeira said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
At a time when Europe is electrifying its economy, getting hooked up to a grid can sometimes take many years because of the high demand. Spain and Portugal also offer the advantage of relatively cheap green electricity, which is fueling investments in local AI infrastructure. Iberian power usage from data centers are poised to surge more than eightfold in a decade, Aurora Energy Research Ltd. said in a report in November.
EDP aims to be coal free by the end of this year. In 2023, it requested authorization from Spain’s electricity system operator to close its remaining coal-fired power plants in the country. It’s converting the Abono II plant to run on gas. The firm also owns the Abono I, Soto 3 and Los Barrios coal plants.
Technology companies including Microsoft Corp. have also set themselves ambitious clean energy goals, and EDP is among power producers that have signed contracts to sell output from renewable projects to those firms.
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