Link Securities | Iberdrola (IBE) has announced an alliance with Irish group Echelon to launch a bid to conquer the data centre market in Spain, according to a report in Monday’s edition of Expansión newspaper. Echelon is owned by the Starwood Capital fund, known in Spain for its major forays into the real estate sector, where it has recently been involved in multimillion-pound deals.
The newspaper notes that Iberdrola had been looking for a partner for months to launch itself fully into the data centre race, which offers enormous development potential for real estate companies (due to the buildings required for this business) and for energy companies, due to the enormous amount of electricity they consume. Iberdrola will hold 20% of the shares in the joint venture it is creating with Echelon, through its subsidiary CPD4Green, which was created specifically for data centres.
It will be responsible for identifying and securing land with connectivity to the electricity grid where the centres will be developed. In addition, electricity will be supplied 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Echelon will own 80% of the joint venture and will be responsible for the development, design, marketing and day-to-day management of the joint venture.
Meanwhile, the digital portal Bolsamania.com reported that Iberdrola’s US subsidiary, Avangrid, has announced the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Google for more than 100 megawatts (MW) of energy from the Leaning Juniper IIB project. The project, located in Gilliam County (Oregon, USA), will supply energy to the technology company’s data centres in nearby The Dalles. The project represents an investment of around €170 million ($200 million) in north-central Oregon. Construction will employ 150 people.
