This is what the huge new data centre to be built in Malaga will look like

The project to build a huge new data processing centre - Olive Urban - on a plot of land on Calle Canadá, in the El Viso industrial area of Malaga, is now fully immersed in the urban planning process, after it was initially approved by the city council last Friday. The municipal urban planning department has included this action in its accelerator unit so that the path towards the project's final approval is as speedy as possible.

As SUR reported last month, this development is promoted by Box2Bit - a subsidiary of Capital Energy, which in recent years has announced the construction of three other similar but larger data centres in Spain, in Aragón and Castilla-La Mancha, worth 6.3 billion euros.

The initial design of the new building has been signed off by architects of the local HCP studio - Mario Romero and the recently deceased Javier Higuera. As can be seen in the first computer recreation of the project, the building will reach a maximum height of 18.2 metres, including panels intended to acoustically insulate the equipment located on the rooftop. Next to this main structure, which will have a total built area of 12,770 square metres, an administrative area covering 2,260 square metres will also be constructed, with a maximum height of 14 metres, as well as an electrical substation.

The project requires some 196 parking spaces, planned on a basement level, in addition to another 73 surface parking spaces, which could be increased if the electrical substation is built underground.

The infrastructure budget amounts to 3.3 million euros, including the construction of a bridge to widen the axis of Calle Canadá over the section of the existing stream running parallel to Calle Rosamunda, which connects Avenida de Ortega y Gasset with the Guadalhorce motorway, which will improve connections to the site. This new footbridge has a cost of 489,539 euros. Additionally, the work to improve and adapt the electrical networks involves an investment of 1.4 million euros.

The data centre, with which Malaga will strengthen its role as a technology capital, will represent a total investment of 279 million euros and will generate around 80 permanent jobs, as well as more than 450 during its construction. It will play a key role due to its geographical position, as it will act as a gateway for data from southern Spain to the rest of the country and Europe.