The Tarragona region is positioning itself as a European leader in Artificial Intelligence with this new investment. Submer Group, headquartered in Barcelona with international presence in Houston and Taipei, will establish its new facilities in Flix, located in the Ribera d'Ebre region. The center will have an installed electrical capacity of between 85 and 90 MW.
The investment will be made on a site of approximately 13,000 square meters within the former facilities of the chemical company Ercros. This location is part of the reindustrialization plan initiated in 2015, following the progressive closure of the industrial complex, which concluded in 2023. The plot was cleared after the recent demolition of a building used for treating contaminated sediments from the Flix reservoir.
The energy required for the infrastructure will be supplied by Ercros, which has around 70 MW linked to its former industrial complex, with over 20 MW immediately available. Additionally, 20 MW will be purchased from an IT sector company holding electricity reservation rights.
This project, formalized within the industrial complex's reindustrialization committee, has the support of the Department of Business and Labor of the Generalitat de Catalunya. It is part of a broader plan that includes the Nuclear Transition Fund (FTN), aimed at municipalities near the nuclear power plants of Ascó and Vandellòs, with closures scheduled from 2030 onwards.
The new investment by Submer, creating up to 150 jobs, could help offset the employment loss in Flix, estimated at around 200 direct industrial jobs due to the closure of Ercros between 2013 and 2023. This marks the second major investment under the reindustrialization plan, following the establishment of Grupo Gas Ibérica in 2023.
The infrastructure will be developed and operated by Rubix Data Centers, a subsidiary of Submer specializing in hyperscale centers for AI. The group's key differentiator is its proprietary liquid immersion cooling technology, a closed-loop system that significantly reduces water consumption compared to evaporation technologies.
This technology is similar to that planned for the AI gigafactory in Móra la Nova, which aims for near-zero water consumption. In comparison, the Flix facility will start with a capacity of 85-90 MW, while the Móra la Nova gigafactory plans to reach up to 600 MW at maximum expansion, supported by the Els Aubals electrical substation.
