Portuguese utility EDP has signed an agreement with real estate firm Merlin to supply clean energy to the data center campus that the Spanish company is building with Edged Energy in Lisbon.

The Portuguese electricity distributor said it plans to implement “the largest single-site decentralized solar energy project in its history” with solar plants of up to 100MWp capacity.

EDP also plans to provide other long-term energy supply methods so that the campus will have uninterrupted access to renewable electricity.

Merlin and US data center company Edged Energy began construction last year on Portugal’s first carbon-neutral data center campus in Vila Franca de Xira, about 20km from Lisbon.

The project will feature five data centers optimized to deliver 180MW of critical power and will use 100 percent renewable energy. It will also have an average power usage efficiency (PUE) of 1.15 across the infrastructure.

In addition, the facility is being built to handle the dense AI-driven loads without consuming water for cooling.

Merlin and Edged plan to add additional electrical capacity to the complex, with the goal of reaching up to 300MW of critical power in the long term.

Decarbonization of large companies

The campus is being built in phases and is expected to have the first facility up and running by 2027.

EDP and Merlin want the signed agreement to represent a significant step towards consolidating the Iberian Peninsula as a leading digital and technology hub in Europe.

“As proof of our commitment, our data centers have net zero water consumption for cooling and use 67 percent less energy for these systems compared to the European average,” said Ismael Clemente, CEO of Merlin. “We are proud to announce this partnership with EDP, which guarantees a sustainable energy supply and contributes to positioning Portugal as a reference market in the field of data centers.”

Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO of EDP, added: “The new Merlin Edged data centers will be powered by a renewable, efficient, and reliable energy source, an area in which EDP is fully prepared. This is a further example of EDP’s commitment to being a key partner in the journey towards decarbonization of large companies.”

EDP previously offered renewable power under its EDP Renewables brand, but has since reverted back to EDP.