Quercus today stated that the two data centers planned for the municipality of Abrantes could consume annually nearly 19 times more electricity than the municipality’s own consumption, and called for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for the projects.
In a statement, the environmental association expresses concern about the construction of a second data center in the municipality, near the Alvega roundabout, warning that the coexistence with the development already planned for the lands of the former Pego thermal power plant raises questions about cumulative environmental impacts.
“This is a development, in itself, excessive for the territory it intends to occupy, with potential environmental, water-related and territorial impacts,” says Quercus, referring to a project promoted by the Hyperion group and defending the execution of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before any possible licensing.
The Hyperion project foresees about 151 thousand square meters of deployment area, 287 thousand square meters of construction area and a 200 megavolt-amperes (MVA) electrical connection.
This data center, the second planned for the Abrantes municipality in the Santarém district, was the subject in May of this year of a favorable pronouncement by the municipality, within the scope of a Prior Information Request, with the final approval of the project not yet at issue.
For its part, Hyperion indicated to Lusa that the project was in the licensing phase and forecast a start of operation in 2029.
A second large data center is also planned, promoted by the company EDC ONE, on the lands of the former Pego thermal power plant, with an announced capacity of 300 MW, while the Hyperion project foresees 20 MW.
In the case of the Pego project, the Abrantes City Council declared the investment of municipal interest in September 2025 and approved tax exemptions (IMI, IMT and Derrama) with a total value of 16.2 million euros.
The project envisages an investment of seven billion euros and the creation of 450 direct jobs and 700 indirect jobs by 2030.
“The coexistence of two projects of this magnitude in the same municipality, both dependent on the connection point to the grid at the Pego power plant, raises questions of cumulative impacts, in terms of consumption and contamination of natural resources, pressure on agricultural and forest soils, and changes to the landscape and land-use planning,” warns Quercus.
On an energy level, the environmental association estimates that, in a conservative scenario of 30% average use of installed capacity, the combined consumption of the two centers would be about 841 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year, “roughly 5.7 times the municipality of Abrantes’ annual electricity consumption in 2024.”
“At full capacity, consumption could reach about 2.8 TWh/year, corresponding to almost 19 times the current annual consumption of the municipality,” they note.
On the other hand, Quercus also warns about the water-intensive consumption of data centers, considering especially worrying the installation of these infrastructures in a territory already under pressure on water resources.
“It is precisely in this context of water resources already under pressure that another water-intensive industrial infrastructure is to be installed,” they criticize, citing the diagnosis of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) for the 2028-2033 period, which points to a 40% water scarcity index on the Tejo River.
In this sense, the environmentalists demand the conduct of an EIA that jointly assesses the impacts of the two projects on water resources and the regional electricity grid, the rise in local temperature, agricultural and forest areas, and water and noise pollution, before a favorable opinion is issued.
“The goals of the digital and energy transition cannot trump environmental safeguards and territorial planning,” they assert.
