Uruguay has inked a $5.7 billion deal with Spanish renewable energy and data center developer Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente (Solaria) to develop 500MW of solar-powered data center capacity in the country.

Uruguay’s president Yamandú Orsi signed the deal earlier this week. The project will operate under Uruguay’s free zone regime. The data centers are expected to cost $5.5bn, with the associated solar project coming at an estimated cost of $200 million.

The first phase of the project will include a 200MW data center and 350MW solar project. The second phase will add a further 300MW of data center capacity and includes an option to expand the solar project. The facilities will be distributed across Canelones, San José, and Florida.

The project’s first phase is scheduled for completion in 2029 and is expected to create 3,100 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs upon the completion of the data center and associated solar farm.

Reflecting on the news, Uruguay’s minister of energy and mining, Fernanda Cardona, said it is “a national project, from which all parties will benefit”, due to the quantity and quality of jobs it generates in the interior of the country and because “it represents positive capital accumulation.”

“This will generate a value chain, jobs, and knowledge for our entire population, and will reaffirm Uruguay as a digital hub, combining renewable energy with network capabilities, human talent, and the digital economy,” she added.

Founded in 2002. In addition to Uruguay, it operates dozens of solar installations across Spain, Portugal, and Italy. In total, the company has around 1.6GW of installed solar capacity and more than 1.4GW under construction. It is also developing wind and battery energy storage projects, with a goal of reaching 14GW by 2028 and 18GW by 2030.

Solaria already has a presence in the Latin American state, operating in Uruguay for almost ten years. It operates two solar plants in the country in Río Negro and Soriano, which have a combined capacity of 19MW.

Founded in 2002, Solaria operates dozens of solar installations across Spain, Portugal, and Italy, as well as Uruguay. In total, the company has around 1.6GW of installed solar capacity and more than 1.4GW under construction. It is also developing wind and battery energy storage projects, with a goal of reaching 14GW by 2028 and 18GW by 2030.

The company first entered the data center market last year with the formation of Solaria Data Center. According to reports at the time, the company had been granted connection requests for more than 150MW of capacity from the Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica.

Following this, in March of this year, the company received the green light from Red Eléctrica to connect 225MW for a planned data center in the Basque Country. In the same week, Solaria announced that it had gained approval for the connection of two more data centers totaling 130MW in Madrid.

In September, the firm announced that it was building a 200MW artificial intelligence data center with Japanese technology company Datasection. This will see Solaria’s industrial facilities in Puertollano converted for data center use.

In November, the company formally launched a European sustainable data center platform.