Solaria Plans to Invest US$5.7 Billion to Build a 500 MW Data Center in Uruguay

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 14, the Uruguayan government signed a strategic agreement with the Spanish company Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente, planning to invest US$5.7 billion to develop a data center technology park with a total capacity of up to 500 MW, along with 350 MW of photovoltaic power generation facilities. The project adopts a free trade zone model and will be implemented in two phases, of which US$5.5 billion is planned for data center construction and another US$200 million for photovoltaic power generation facilities. The Uruguayan government has classified it as the largest announced investment project in the country's history.

According to the project plan, the first phase will build 200 MW of data center capacity and all planned photovoltaic installed capacity, while the second phase will add another 300 MW of data center capacity and retain the possibility of further expanding the scale of solar power generation. The data center facilities will be located in Canelones and San José respectively, while the photovoltaic power generation facilities will be mainly located in Florida. Together, the three areas constitute the project development scope.

Solaria will be responsible for the development and operation of the free trade zone, including land development, infrastructure construction, and the provision of supporting services to data center operators. The company will also build the necessary power connection facilities to connect the park to Uruguay's 500 kV transmission network. The project plans to build one or two photovoltaic power stations, with the required land provided by Uruguay's state-owned power company UTE. The agreement between the two parties also includes a proposed power purchase arrangement with a term of up to 40 years, under which UTE will purchase the electricity produced by the relevant photovoltaic power stations.

The park will initially focus mainly on cloud computing services, and the data center will adopt closed-loop cooling or other equivalent water-saving technologies to reduce water consumption during the cooling process. The project will simultaneously develop digital infrastructure and renewable energy generation facilities, and configure park service facilities according to the needs of data center operators.

The implementation arrangements announced by Uruguay's Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining show that the first phase is planned to be completed between 2029 and 2030. During construction, approximately 3,100 jobs are expected to be created, including about 2,400 for data center engineering and about 700 for photovoltaic engineering. After the entire park is put into operation, approximately 1,500 long-term jobs are expected to be created, covering work in information technology, data center operation and maintenance, solar power generation, and power grid facility operation.