Yesterday was the European Day Against Data Centers and the capital of Spain’s “favorite” region of data centers took to the streets to protest: thousands of people took part in the demonstration in Zaragoza. The numbers vary depending on where you look: according to elDiario.es there were around 5,000, although the Spanish National Police put the number of attendees at 2,000. Because yes, AI seems like an inscrutable, omniscient and almost omnipresent entity, but in order for it to exist it needs huge physical infrastructure that consumes electricity, water and of course land.
Information center? no thanks. The platform “It’s not a drought, it’s looting” is asking other groups to cripple projects under construction to assess their impact. Slogans like “‘clouds in the sky, not in our city'”, “we want cheap apartments, not data centers” or “no water for so much data” were heard. Industrial engineer Cristina García, a member of the group, assured that “these projects do not create jobs, they do not pay taxes and they are taking all the resources.”
Among the problems that disturb the data centers are projects of general interest in Aragon, which in the form of tax exemptions, expropriations and express procedures are little less than rolling out a red carpet for the big companies behind these problems, explained the former mayor of Zaragoza, elDiario.es Pedro Santisteve, who also amounts to this complaint and likewise to the extent of his complaints to 4 community centers. Exclusive and comprehensive, transparency is lacking for Aragon. Pedro Arrojo, emeritus professor at the University of Zaragoza and UN rapporteur for water, does not ask to ban this sector, but to know and control it, he explained for the same newspaper.
Why is it important?. Because there are data centers, but in the future there will be many more and their resource consumption is significant: in its Energy and AI report, the International Energy Agency estimates that its electricity demand will double, reaching 945 TWh in 2030. This is more than the current consumption in Japan. In Aragon, if all the announced projects are implemented, the consumption will be between 10,000 and more than 55,000 GWh per year, according to Ara newspaper. In fact, Amazon’s expansion alone will consume more than the entire community. This University of California study maintains that AI’s water footprint is relevant and not very transparent.
Resources have costs, they are local and immediate. The question is whether it pays rent to the municipality in whose territory the data center is installed and who lives there. The answer is broader and the lack of public and contrary information here raises doubts.
Complaints: Wealth, Taxation and Employment. Arrojo talks about specific moments like drought years: “When droughts come, and severe and increasingly strong droughts come, what is not clear is who will have priority. Of course, data centers will not close because of it” and that because of electricity costs, infrastructures have to be very expensive: “People have to pay a very expensive price”. These companies are not going to pay for it, who have already made laughable deals.”
Regarding employment, the groups assure that more than a thousand jobs were announced, but excluding construction, they barely reached 200 when working in the installed centers. A few weeks ago there was controversy in El Burgo de Ebro and Villanueva de Gállego because although Amazon Web Services chose Aragon for its data center, Madrid as the center of IA. Amazon then clarified that taxation would remain in-house.
On the horizon: elections and royal decrees. The protest comes just weeks before Spain’s general election and a royal decree on data centers that was drafted in August calls for newly implemented renewable energy and optimal levels of energy and water efficiency. Along the way and after industry pressure, it has been softened, raising the application threshold from 1 MW to 10 MW and granting transfers of up to five years for those who cannot meet the 80% renewable level.
In Xataka | Aragon has become a favorite destination for data centers. And they have already threatened to use half of their power
In Xataka | Data centers are the real “heaters”. And they are settling in hot regions like Aragon
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