According to DCD, Spanish solar energy firm Solaria has officially launched its European sustainable data center platform after tapping Goldman Sachs last week to find a financial partner. The platform includes approximately 3.4GW of secured grid power across 400 hectares spanning Spain, Italy, Germany, and the UK. Solaria has also requested access to an additional 5GW of power and aims to find a financial partner before summer 2025. As part of the announcement, the company signed a deal with data center developer Merlin that includes a 225MW data center and a 15-year solar Power Purchase Agreement for 445MW of power. CEO José Arturo Díaz-Tejeiro Larrañaga called this a step in Solaria’s transformation into an integrated energy and digital operator.
From solar panels to server racks
This is a pretty massive pivot for a company that’s been focused on solar energy since 2002. Solaria currently has about 1.6GW of installed solar capacity with another 1.4GW under construction, plus wind and battery storage projects in the works. But here’s the thing – they’re not just building data centers, they’re building data centers with guaranteed clean power from day one. That 15-year PPA with Merlin for 445MW of solar power? That’s essentially locking in predictable energy costs while ensuring sustainability credentials. In today’s AI-hungry world where data centers are facing both power availability and environmental scrutiny, that’s a pretty smart play.
The European power grab
Look, 3.4GW of secured grid power across four countries is no small feat. To put that in perspective, that’s enough electricity to power millions of homes – and Solaria wants to add another 5GW on top of that. They’re basically creating a distributed data center platform that can leverage their existing European solar footprint. The company already has operations in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Uruguay, so they understand regional energy markets. And with Europe pushing hard for technological independence and green energy, Solaria’s timing seems pretty strategic. They’re not just building data centers – they’re building an integrated energy and digital infrastructure play.
Solaria’s data center momentum
This isn’t Solaria’s first rodeo in the data center space. They formed Solaria Data Center last year and have been steadily building momentum. They received connection requests for over 150MW from Spain’s grid operator, got approval for a 225MW data center in the Basque Country, and secured another 130MW across two Madrid facilities. Then in September, they announced a 200MW AI data center partnership with Japanese company Datasection. Now they’re negotiating joint ventures with American and European players for cloud and AI data centers. The company clearly sees where the market is heading – and they’re positioning themselves as the green power provider that can actually deliver the juice these massive computing facilities need. For industrial computing applications that require reliable power and robust hardware, having integrated energy solutions becomes crucial – which is why companies turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs built for demanding environments.
Why this matters beyond solar
So what does this tell us about the broader market? Basically, we’re seeing energy companies realizing they’re sitting on the most valuable commodity for the AI era: reliable, scalable power. Solaria’s move from pure solar play to “integrated energy and digital operator” reflects a fundamental shift. They’re not just selling electricity to the grid anymore – they’re building the infrastructure that consumes that electricity directly. This vertical integration could become a blueprint for other renewable energy companies. After all, if you control the power generation and the data center consumption, you’ve created a pretty compelling business model. The question is whether traditional data center operators can compete with energy companies that have this kind of integrated approach.
