KEY POINTS
- President Orsi will travel to Madrid November 14–17 for an economic forum supported by Solaria.
- A $5.7 billion plan includes 500 MW of data centers and 350 MW of solar across three Uruguayan departments.
- Construction is targeted to start next year with 3,100 first-phase jobs, pending land and environmental approvals.
A $5.7 billion investment framework with Spanish energy firm Solaria is advancing toward implementation, with President Yamandú Orsi scheduled to travel to Madrid next week for an economic forum the company is helping to organize.
The trip will run from Saturday, November 14, through Tuesday, November 17, and include a breakfast briefing hosted by Nueva Economía Fórum as part of Fórum Europa. The event is supported by Grupo de Salud Asisa and Solaria, according to parliamentary authorization documents first reported by ámbito.com.
The visit follows a coordination meeting between national authorities and the departmental governors of Canelones, Florida, and San José — the three jurisdictions where Solaria’s data center and photovoltaic parks are planned. Officials outlined a roadmap that will begin with technical site visits by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining next week.
Canelones governor Francisco Legnani said the construction phase would last about two years once land purchases and environmental permits are secured. The first stage is expected to create 3,100 construction jobs, with work targeted to begin next year, though the initial site — either San José or Canelones — has not yet been decided.
Under the preliminary plan, San José would host a 300 MW data center on 150 hectares, Canelones a 200 MW data center on 100 hectares, and Florida a solar generation park across 670 hectares owned by state utility UTE. Industry Minister Fernanda Cardona stated that the involved land parcels are not displacing any domestic production.
Strategic Signals and Energy Realities
The Solaria initiative carries the weight of being Uruguay’s largest announced foreign investment, but it remains at a strategic-agreement stage — not yet fully contracted, financed, permitted, or built. The proposed 500 MW of data center capacity would require continuous power, while the accompanying 350 MW of solar is peak output; without grid storage or backup generation, the two figures are not directly equivalent.
Uruguay’s current installed solar capacity stands at 339 MW, meaning the project could roughly double that figure. Demand reached 12,412 GWh in 2025, and the state grid operator has identified a need for a third north–south transmission corridor, including a 500 kV line, to support this class of digital infrastructure. For international investors, the project signals a high-level commitment to positioning Uruguay as a regional data hub, but execution risk remains tied to land acquisition, environmental approvals, and final power purchase agreements with UTE.
