The data giant Bilbao-Arasur Danta Center Campus, one of the largest in Europe, has become one of the data centers under construction in Ribabellosa. On 3 December, the first of the six pavilions to be built was inaugurated, with the presence of the lehendakari of the Basque Government, Imanol Pradales, and the deputy general of Álava, Ramiro González, among others.

The project has been promoted by the Madrid company Merlin Propertiers Socimi, S.A., dedicated to real estate investment, and will have a capacity of 300 megawatts. The director of Merlin, Ismael Clemente, explained at the opening ceremony that the choice of the site has to do with the proximity of Sopela, where some of the major underwater cables arrive.

Glycol, an advanced system?

But in addition to fiber interconnection, and to the extent that they are electro-intensive, energy consumption is an important factor in these large data centers called “hyper scale”. In addition to electricity, they consume a lot of water to cool their systems. Merlin explained, however, that the Ribabellosa data centre has an "advanced cooling system that does not spend water".

The server will use cooling glycol, a chemical compound well known in engines and in the cooling industry, which is higher than water. However, this closed circuit is cooled with air, so it will take a lot of energy, but the company has ensured it will be “100% renewable”. In Álava, the plans of the Basque Government and the aspirations of many companies provide for a high concentration of photovoltaic plants and other infrastructures.

But that “advanced” system referred to by Merlin is not theirs. The Madrid company is building data centers with Edged as a partner company, a subsidiary of the US multinational Endeavour (USA). Edged claims in his marketing that he uses “technology” Thermal Works, with which he spends 74% less energy than the rest of the data centers. To better understand the percentage: if the average energy use efficiency of the data centers (PUE) is 1.58, that of the Edged data centers is 1.15. Is it a lot or a little?

Money in concrete and copper

Merlin wants to expand or expand its data centers throughout the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to the Ribabellosa infrastructure, the project has projects in Lisbon and in different parts of Catalonia. To this end, it has just carried out a capital increase among its shareholders, which has reached EUR 2 billion. The main owners of the company are Banco Santander and Nortia Capital, which is the holding company held by the billionaire Spanish businessman Manuel Lao.

Last July, at the time of the capital increase, sources of the company explained to the newspaper La Vanguardia that they will "spend" all that money. What? “One third in concrete and steel and two thirds in copper, cables and technology.”