Summary
- Merlin expects to begin the first 20MW IT phase at Navalmoral de la Mata once construction permission is secured.
- The initial €400m programme would build infrastructure for 100MW while equipping only the first 20MW.
- Long-term expansion towards 1.4GW remains dependent on additional electrical capacity and future financing.
Merlin Properties is preparing to start construction of its Navalmoral de la Mata data centre in Extremadura this autumn, using the first tranche of electrical capacity allocated to the project rather than waiting for the power required for its full planned build-out.
The Spanish property group expects the remaining permitting process to be completed by the end of September under a normal timetable, according to reporting by Cinco Días. Construction would then begin with infrastructure capable of supporting 100MW of IT capacity, although only the first 20MW would initially be equipped.
Merlin has received 29MW of electrical capacity for the site, enough to support approximately 20MW of IT load. Its initial investment is expected to be around €400m, covering the building shell and infrastructure required for the larger 100MW first building alongside equipment for the energised portion.
The sequencing is deliberate. Rather than leave the site untouched until substantially more grid capacity becomes available, Merlin is proposing to advance the physical construction so that additional IT capacity can be fitted more quickly if further electricity is awarded over the next two years.
The longer-term Navalmoral plan is considerably larger. Merlin has set out a potential 1.4GW IT campus comprising multiple data centre buildings. Cinco Días reported a long-term investment requirement of about €14bn, while Merlin’s own 2026 investor material has described investment of up to €15bn for the development.
That scale remains a planning envelope rather than an immediately deliverable capacity figure. The project is divided into stages, with the first 200MW followed by a possible additional 1.2GW. The rate at which those phases can move from design into construction and operation will depend heavily on power allocation.
Building ahead of the grid
Navalmoral illustrates an increasingly important distinction in large European data centre projects: securing land and obtaining permission to build do not necessarily mean that the eventual IT capacity can be energised on the same timetable.
Merlin’s approach is to move some construction work ahead of the full grid award. That can shorten the gap between receiving additional power and making usable capacity available, but it also transfers part of the development risk onto the property owner. A building prepared for 100MW has limited value as a data centre if only a fraction of that load can be connected for an extended period.
The company nevertheless has a broader data centre programme that gives the Extremadura project a strategic role beyond a single campus. Merlin has facilities and developments across Madrid, Barcelona, Álava, Lisbon, Zaragoza, and Navalmoral, with its Iberian strategy intended to connect large-scale capacity across the peninsula.
Its earlier programme includes an initial 64MW of infrastructure across Getafe, Barcelona, and Álava. Further phases under construction or planned include additional capacity in those markets, 80MW in Lisbon, and 144MW planned in Zaragoza.
By 2032, Merlin expects the first three phases of its wider data centre programme to reach 724MW of IT capacity. Navalmoral sits beyond that programme as the company’s largest individual development opportunity, but its electrical connection makes the gap between planned capacity and deliverable capacity unusually visible.
Spain and Portugal are attracting a large pipeline of proposed data centre investment, helped by renewable generation, international connectivity, and available development land. The limiting factor is increasingly whether transmission and distribution networks can make sufficient firm capacity available in the right locations and within commercial project timescales.
For Navalmoral, the immediate milestone is therefore relatively modest compared with the 1.4GW headline. Merlin needs to complete the environmental and construction-permission process, start the first building, and turn its existing 29MW electrical allocation into approximately 20MW of operating IT capacity. Only after that does the much larger power question become a physical expansion programme rather than a long-term plan.
