The data center in Sines is “the largest foreign investment since Autoeuropa” – News

Eurico Brilhante Dias told Lusa in the context of the presentation, on Friday, of the mega-global data center project to “potentially the largest foreign investment the country has accumulated since Autoeuropa.” They are installed in Sines by the Anglo-American Capital start-up campus.

According to the company, this is an investment of “€ 3,500 million” in a “Hyperscaler data center campus”, with a capacity of up to 450 megawatts (MW), which “will create up to 1,200 highly qualified direct jobs and may generate 8,000 new indirect jobs. By 2025. “

The Secretary of State stressed that the project – called Sines 4.0 – “changes a significant portion of the investment profile” that was taken for Sines, given its “digital transformation and energy” profile.

“It is a digital transformation project given the opportunities that“ data centers ”and the data economy will provide to us in the twenty-first century, and at the same time, it represents an energy transformation, because more and more of those who invest are looking for sites that can be supplied from renewable energies.

The Minister also highlighted the “enormous potential for investment in export services,” which has been classified since March as a project of national benefit (PIN) whose resettlement contract has been signed in Sines today with AICEP Global Parques.

“We are talking about an investment that has the potential – according to information from the company itself – to provide approximately 700 to 1,200 jobs and this, of course, has the potential to be a service provider. We are, basically, talking about a ‘data center’ which, later, It will deal with the outside world, therefore, at the same time it is a huge foreign investment with huge potential for exporting services.

Noting that “the year 2020 was particularly difficult for the global economy as well as for the Portuguese economy, despite the increase in the“ stock ”of foreign direct investment in 2020 in Portugal, Briollhant Dias highlighted this project as“ undoubtedly the largest foreign investment that Captured the country since Autoeuropa. “

The investment from the campus – a North American owned company in Davidson Kempner Capital Management LB (Davidson Kempner) and British Pioneer Point Partners – was presented Friday at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Antonio Costa and the ministers of state, economics and digital transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, infrastructure and housing Pedro Nuno Santos, as well as Assistant Secretary of State and Communications, Hugo Santos Mendes.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2022, with 900 people participating in the first phase and up to 2,700 in total, and Sines 4.0 is expected to open at the end of 2023, the first of five buildings expected.

In a statement sent to Lusa, the Anglo-American company noted “at least five major advantages” that make Sines a unique location with the potential to become one of Europe’s leading “data center” campuses: energy, range, connectivity, cooling and offshore terrain.

In terms of energy, it provides access to “low-cost energy from renewable sources, through very good connectivity to the national electricity grid and easy access to competitive green energy, including solar, wind and (in the future) hydrogen”.

Two other “critical success factors” for Sines are “range, with land options and significant expansion potential of over 450 MW”, “connectivity, via intercontinental submarine cables currently under construction” and “excellent connectivity with the interior of the European continent.” “.

The potential for “competitive, highly efficient and sustainable cooling” is another “asset” of the place: with existing water cooling facilities, it is possible to use ocean water to keep the servers at optimum temperatures with the ability to reuse the remaining heat of Sines 4.0 for neighboring industrial customers.

Finally, the promoters emphasize the “unique offshore terrain of the continental shelf in Sinis, which makes it an excellent location, with safety and low cost for new submarine cables in the future.”