Solaria Said to Hire Goldman Sachs to Seek Data Center Partner

(Bloomberg) — Spanish solar developer Solaria Energia y Medio Ambiente SA has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to find a financial partner for a newly created European data center platform, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The platform will include 3.4 gigawatts of secured power grid access, as well as about 400 hectares (990 acres) of land across Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK, said the person, who declined to be identified discussing private information. The company has requested access to an additional 5 gigawatts, and aims to find a partner before next summer, the person said.

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Artificial intelligence is driving a surge of power consumption globally. Electricity demand from AI training and services is set to grow four-fold in the next 10 years, according to BloombergNEF. Although fossil fuels are expected to fill the initial gap, power generators such as Solaria are positioning themselves to supply renewable power as large technology companies have set ambitious clean-energy goals to operate the facilities in the long-run.

Spokespeople for Solaria and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

In the European Union alone, growing data-center energy demand implies as many as 35 gigawatts of new solar capacity may be needed through 2030, according to analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.

That’s led energy transition stocks, including Solaria, to surge in 2025. The Madrid-based company’s shares have soared 99% for the year to date.

In Spain, where power distribution networks are nearly saturated, Solaria has already secured data center grid access for 1.2 gigawatts and has about 3 gigawatts in clean-energy assets operating or under construction, as well as about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of networks.

The company signed a memorandum of understanding in 2024 with Japan’s Datasection Inc. to build a data center with a capacity of as much as 200 megawatts in its plant in Puertollano.

The agreement entailed the construction of an AI facility in an area as large as 100,000 square meters (1,076,000 sq feet). The plant is equipped with highly insulated clean rooms, once used to make photo-voltaic cells, that would be adapted to house the technological component of the data centers.

Analysts see Spain — where data centers are projected to drive 6% of total electricity demand by 2035, according to BloombergNEF — as a potential hub due to its abundant clean energy, land availability, and good sub-sea cable connections.