# Find powered land for data centers Name the load and the area. Noda reads the grid operator’s demand capacity at each substation nearby, then looks for flat land beside the ones that can take it, clear of flood zones and protected areas, with water and fibre close by. ## Ask for the power first, then the land Noda reads the demand tables, says what they mean for your load and ranks the areas where a connection is most likely. The example: 100 MW within 60 km of Madrid, Spain. **Zero is an answer, with a reason.** Red Eléctrica’s table showed 0 MW free for new demand at every node within 60 km. Noda found why: a stability limit shared by the whole central zone, which grid investment does not raise. **Dates come marked as estimates.** The earliest firm permit Noda could defend is the second half of 2027, if you buy a granted one. The answer says this is its estimate from the records, not an operator date. ## How Noda looked for power, then for land It split the work: two engineers on the grid and six on land, one area each, at the same time. Every step is recorded, failed tries included. 8 engineers, 41 minutes 1. **Read the operator’s demand table.** 0 MW free at all 91 Madrid-region nodes 2. **Check the distributors’ tables.** At most 29.8 MW at any of their nodes 3. **Map the 46 nodes within 60 km.** Three of them are tender nodes 4. **Find out why every node is at zero.** A stability limit shared by the central zone 5. **Send an engineer to each land area.** West, Henares, north, south-east, south, Toledo 6. Dead end: The cadastral parcel service. Rate-limited. Owners left open. 7. **Screen 20 ha of flat land near each substation.** Slope, flood zones, Natura 2000, parks, water and fibre 8. **Rank the five areas.** Morata goes on a watch list: its land was read from OSM only 9. Dead end: The first water demand figure. A unit error. Worked out again. 10. **Read the planning class at the west and south sites.** Rural land there needs a plan change 11. **Save the sites, the brief and the node table to your project.** **Result.** No substation within 60 km of Madrid can give a firm 100 MW today. The earliest firm permit Noda could defend: the second half of 2027 if you buy a granted one, the second half of 2028 if you wait, with power on around 2031. East (Meco) and west (Villaviciosa) lead the five areas. ## Keep the ranking next to the map Noda saved a one-page brief and the node table to the project, with the three best sites. The next question starts from them. ## Then ask the operator what only it can confirm The answer ends with the questions for Red Eléctrica and the routes to a connection that are still open. Six things Red Eléctrica must confirm 1. **Whether the node can be released from the stability limit** And when, for a power-electronics load 2. **Whether a free bay exists at the substation** At 220 or 400 kV, and the works the connection needs 3. **The status of each granted permit you might buy** Holder, milestones, change of holder 4. **Whether a newcomer can enter a tender** At Algete, La Cereal or Fortuna, and when a call comes 5. **Whether flexible access is open at the node** And on what terms until 2029 6. **Short-circuit strength, protection and metering** Four routes to a connection the run found 1. **Buy a granted permit** You buy the project with its land; a permit lapses if it moves more than 10 km 2. **Bid in a tender** Four tender nodes, no call published yet 3. **Flexible access** Requests open on 1 March 2027; you cut to zero on the operator’s signal 4. **Capacity that permit holders give up** The list was due on 22 August and is not published The next step Noda offered: draft the enquiry to Red Eléctrica. Nothing is sent. ## Use cases for finding powered land Each one opens Noda with a first message you can change before you send it. - **Screen a possible site** Grid, land and environment before you pay for a study - **Compare grid connection options** Nearby lines and substations, ranked with the evidence - **Compare two sites** Two sites side by side, on the same basis - **Find useful map data** Find the map data for your area and add it to the map ## Questions about finding powered land Something else? Write to [hello@noda.energy](mailto:hello@noda.energy). ### What is powered land? Land with a grid connection for a large load, such as a data center, or a clear route to one. For a data center the power decides the site, so Noda starts with the substations that can supply the load and then looks for land beside them. ### Where does Noda find substation capacity for a data center? In the capacity the grid operator publishes for demand connections, and in the distributors' tables. In the Madrid run it read Red Eléctrica's table of 1 October 2026 and the tables of i-DE and UFD, and put the 46 transmission nodes within 60 km on the map. Where an operator publishes nothing, Noda says so. ### What if every substation shows zero? Noda says why and lists what is still open. Around Madrid every node within 60 km showed 0 MW free, because of a stability limit shared by the central zone. Noda listed four routes: buy a granted permit, bid in a tender, flexible access, and capacity that permit holders give up, with what is known about each one and the questions the operator must answer. ### Which land checks does Noda run? Area and slope, flood zones, Natura 2000 and other protected areas, planning class, cadastral parcels, water and fibre. Each map layer names its source and the date it was read. In the Madrid run: slope from a 30 m terrain model, flood zones from MITECO's SNCZI map, protected areas from the EEA. When a source fails, Noda says so: the cadastral service was rate-limited, so parcel owners stayed open. ### How much land does a 100 MW data center need? It depends on the design. In the Madrid run Noda estimated about 20 ha with multi-storey halls and marked that as its estimate. One of its engineers worked from an announced campus of 300 MW on 900 ha and got 300 ha; Noda kept that as the upper case. ### Does this work outside Spain? Yes. Name the country and the load. Noda finds that country's grid operator data and land records, and where nothing is published it says so. The use cases below open with examples in Germany, Spain, Poland and Romania. ## Where should your data center plug in? Ask in your own words. You can attach a PDF, KML, GeoJSON, CSV or Excel file. Have an account? [Log in](https://app.noda.energy/login) --- This is the Markdown version of https://noda.energy/powered-land (Powered land and data center site selection | Noda). Find powered land for a data center. Noda finds the substations that can take the load, then screens nearby land for flood, protected areas, water and fibre. More: [all pages](https://noda.energy/llms.txt) · [API and developer docs](https://noda.energy/docs) · [contact](https://noda.energy/contact)