By creating multiple large-scale locations around Portugal, the Government is looking to replicate the Sines Industrial and Data Centre hub in Costa Vicentina. An area currently at max capacity as one of the most ambitious industrial zones in the south of Europe and the largest deep-sea port in Portugal. The new locations will be adapted to attract hyperscalers, AI infrastructure and other major investments.

Portugal’s Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Manuel Castro Almeida, highlighted at a conference in June seven new “Sines”-style mega data centres. In Sines, the industrial area has already attracted more than EUR 25bn to Portugal. A number that exceeds the Recovery and Resilience Plan (the “RRP”), the Portugal Transformation and Resilience Plan (PTRR) or the PT2030 EU funding.

The minister highlights, however, that the tight deadlines of completing the projects at the beginning of the next decade are ambitious. The government is currently working on a plan on how to accommodate these deadlines. At the same time, the minister addresses the need for the city of Sines to follow the rapid development of the industrial area. According to the Minister, Sines cannot just be a cluster of factories. For the growing population and in order to be an attractive place for skilled labour, the town needs to have adequate schools, doctors, supermarkets and infrastructure networks.

Also, the lack of housing is high on the agenda for the town of Sines.

The government understands that with Sines at capacity, the solution is not to expand the area, but to replicate it. The idea is to create two medium to large business incubation areas in the north of the country – on the coast and inland, and two in the central region, equally one on the coast and one inland, plus one in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region and one in the interior Alentejo. The complete sizes of the new areas are not available, but initial numbers from the minister span between 300 and 800 hectares.

The establishment of the new areas is foreseen using funding from the PTRR. It will be the CCDR, which is the regional coordination and development commissions, present in each region, which will study the areas.

Since data centres are using massive amounts of energy, something that is abundant in Portugal; however, electricity prices are high. What will this mean to the average consumer? According to Ana Quelhas, Executive Director, Global Hydrogen & Data Centres at EDP, it is correct that the so-called hyper-scalers consume a lot of energy. However, she highlighted at the .AI Conference on 14 July in Lisbon that the increase in data centre costs does not represent more energy costs for the end consumer. AI will require more renewables, more infrastructure, more batteries, and more investment, but she believes that this need will transform the entire sector.

Like the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, Ana Quelhas also mentions the need to plan for all demand, consumption and infrastructure development and that these areas require investments to meet the increased energy consumption.

Portugal currently has 14 operational data centres and 11 projects under development.