Uruguay has signed a US$ 5.7 billion agreement with Spanish company Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente (Solaria) to develop a 500 MW data center technology park powered partly by its own solar generation, in what the government describes as the largest investment in the country’s history.
President Yamandú Orsi signed the agreement on Wednesday, October 14 and the project will operate under Uruguay’s free zone regime and involve US$ 5.5 billion in data center infrastructure and US$ 200 million in solar energy facilities.
According to a press release, the development will take place in two phases across Canelones, San José and Florida. The first phase will include 200 MW of data center capacity and 350 MW of solar generation, while the second will add another 300 MW of data center capacity, with the possibility of expanding solar production.
Fernanda Cardona, Minister, Ministry of Industry Energy and Mining (MIEM), Uruguay, described the agreement as a “historic investment” and said, “We are signing it in this administration, but it will continue to be deployed in the administration that comes, in the interior of the country, regardless of who is there, this transcends” governments and “we are leaving a work commitment” that “will have a spillover in this five-year period and the next”, she added, describing the development as “a country project”.
Cardona also credited coordination between government ministries, public companies and diplomatic representatives in Spain for securing the agreement, describing the negotiations as a “silent, forceful and record-breaking” effort that “closed in less than five months”.
The project is expected to benefit information technology, data center operations and maintenance, solar power generation and electricity grid services for existing facilities such as Antel’s data center in Pando, its planned facility in Canelones and Google’s data center. Uruguay’s electricity infrastructure, submarine cables, renewable energy capacity and political stability as factors attracting investment to establish Uruguay as a digital hub.
Solaria has operated in Uruguay for nearly a decade, with solar power plants in Young, Río Negro department, and Mercedes, Soriano department, which supply electricity to state-owned utility UTE. Founded in Spain in 2002, the company develops and operates photovoltaic energy projects. It has been listed on the Spanish stock exchange since 2007 and joined the IBEX 35 index in 2020.