Leticia BragaAs the first anniversary of the regional elections approaches, the stars seem to have aligned for Jorge Azcón to celebrate his victory in style. The ‘Crown of Aragon’ on Princess Leonor has been placed, and metaphorically speaking on Jorge Azcón too with his form of governance on the region attracting billions of investment. The announcement by Amazon Web Services to invest €15.7 billion euros and have seven data centres in Aragon and the agreement signed by the Chinese company CGE with Forestalia for €1 billion to create the largest industrial self-consumption system in Spain put the economic face to a week that had started with the presentation of the highest distinctions of the Community with Princess Leonor shining.
Aragon has experienced a shower of investments in three days, which boosts its position in the new economy, and the brilliant presentation of awards to Princess Leonor.
It has been a succession of figures and events that have put Aragon on the front page, with an accumulation of positive news and very unusual front pages. Thus, when the echoes of Leonor’s grateful speech to the Aragonese were still lingering, the investments were announced and the Aragonese president appeared in parliament to show his strength and affirm that “we are in the moment of the greatest business investment as a whole in the history of Aragon.”
The PSOE has already said that these are investments that they started, but the fact is that, in a royal week , they are crowned with the PP government. And the figures are truly overwhelming.
30% of Aragon’s GDP
On Wednesday, Amazon Web Services announced an investment of 15.7 billion euros , the largest in the technology sector in the European Union, to have seven data centres in Aragon within 10 years . Three of them are already up and running on 46 hectares and, with the four new ones, they will occupy a total of 400 hectares in Zaragoza, Huesca, El Burgo de Ebro and Villanueva de Gállego. They announce the creation of 6,800 direct and indirect jobs and an impact on the GDP of Aragon of 12.9 billion euros, 30% of the total.
Beyond the employment required at AWS headquarters, data that the company does not reveal, it is used as a basis for developing the technology sector and creating one of the main technological hubs in Europe.
If in the past the arrival of General Motors energised the Aragonese company and today the automotive auxiliary industry is more powerful than the company itself and works all over the world, it is expected that AWS, together with the Microsoft centres, will act as the driving force of this economy of the future. It is not starting from scratch, since Aragon has its own very competitive and internationalised brands, such as Hiberus, Integra, Oboria or Inycom, and the current government has also announced the creation of a new 40- hectare technology park .
Leading the AWS project is Suzana Curic , general manager for Spain and Portugal, who has assured that her company immediately saw that Aragon was the place due to the availability of land, access to clean energy, the solidity of the business fabric and local talent, as well as the growth potential, and that everything will be done under the most demanding sustainability guidelines
Double the amount of renewable energy
These advantages, plus the location and the facilities provided by the Aragonese institutions to host companies, are being decisive in the dynamics of the arrival of investments. Especially due to the capacity to generate renewable energy, well above the average in Spain: the facilities provided for its deployment, not without controversy, have led to Aragon producing twice as much as it consumes.
The main player in the sector, Forestalia , was the protagonist of the announcement of the investment made on Thursday, with the signing of an agreement with the Chinese company CGE. It will be used for industrial self-consumption of 700 megawatts , expandable to 1,000, with an initial investment of €1,000 million euros . It is a platform that will guarantee the supply of clean energy for the battery factory that the Chinese company is developing with Stellantis in Figueruelas, waiting for Perte III to be more generous than the previous one for the electric vehicle, which only contributed €56 million euros , an amount far from what is needed.
Stellantis is already assembling 150,000 electric batteries while aid is urgently needed for the gigafactory
The president of Aragón, Jorge Azcón, has visited the Figueruelas plant, where he has demanded “justice and speed” for the arrival of funds for the battery gigafactory
The Stellantis plant in Figueruelas continues to advance in its electrification and has already assembled more than 150,000 batteries in its two electric models, the Opel Corsa and the Peugeot 208 , in addition to the Citroën C4 of Madrid, and the Lancia Ypsilon will be added in the coming weeks. A plant that wants to take new steps in its future after producing more than 15 million units of 20 different vehicles, of which 90% are sold outside Spain.
But the future involves evolving, and, translated into the language of the automotive industry, decarbonizing the industry and achieving the production of electric cars at an affordable price, especially when the European Union will prohibit the sale of gasoline vehicles in 2035. “These new requirements imply a tremendous acceleration from the industrial point of view . We need to achieve 100% electrification of the models with new electric platforms,” the director of the Figueruelas plant, José Luis Alonso, stressed this Friday.
For this reason, Stellantis has yet to confirm the award to Figueruelas of the STLA Small platform , key for the arrival of new models and the future of the factory in the short and medium term. The company has 54 million euros from the electric vehicle Perte recently allocated, in addition to another 10 from the Government of Aragon, to assume the large investment that this project would generate.
For this award to be carried out, the director of the plant requires that Figueruelas manage to “maintain its level of competitiveness” and “make a great effort to save costs”, which would allow it to “generate a turnover and operating margins that “They allow this transition to be financed by maintaining the activity.” “ Innovation, which we continue to promote, will be a fundamental lever to make the electric vehicle affordable and similar to the combustion vehicle,” he stressed.
Because one of the big drawbacks of the electric car is its price. Not in vain, the cost of the electric Peugeot 208 is practically double that of the combustion version, both assembled on the Stellantis lines in Figueruelas, with the appearance of vehicles from China impacting the market. “If the public administration encourages its purchase with more operational aid plans, a new advantageous tax system, the development of charging infrastructure, and support for necessary investments , we will probably be able to maintain leadership. If these are not the conditions, an enormous risk would be generated for the activity,” stated Alonso.
AZCÓN DEMANDS “JUSTICE AND SPEED” IN AID FROM THE MINISTRY
The director of the plant made these statements during the visit of the president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón , to the plant, his first as head of the regional Executive. A factory that, as he has stated, is the “flagship” of the Aragonese automotive industry , with 5,000 jobs and generating another 25,000 in auxiliary companies and the ecosystem of the Community.
On everyone’s horizon is the possible installation of a battery gigafactory, for which, according to Azcón, Figueruelas is the only option contemplated in Spain, but, for this, it is necessary for the Ministry of Industry to grant new funds from the Perte VEC. “Aragón does not want to be more or less than anyone else, but the aid that has been given in other autonomies for the construction of gigafactories must be the same as that given here,” he claimed.
From the Ministry, both former minister Héctor Gómez and the current person in charge, Jordi Hereu , have expressed their willingness to favor the installation of the Stellantis project, but they were only awarded 60 million for a billion-dollar investment, similar to that of Volkswagen in Sagunto, which had 400 million public funds. “I appreciate the words, but we will appreciate the actions. It is good that the words are of collaboration , cooperation and drive, but the time has come to make decisions . The economy does not want to wait. Stellantis is willing to start investments, but the aid needs to be distributed, and we are already late,” added the Aragonese president.
The signature was signed at the II Sella Forum, organised by Forestalia itself and with politically and institutionally differentiated scenes. First, before the President of Aragon. Then, with the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, in a meeting that was closed by another minister: José Manuel Albares, of Foreign Affairs. These presences and the dimension of the project – it would almost be equivalent to the Andorra thermal power station , already demolished as an example of fair transition, which had 1,100 megawatts – give hope that perhaps now it is time to receive the necessary aid so that Aragon has its mega battery factory, a community that, in the words of Hereu, “is doing its homework”.
Parents of success
While waiting for this long-awaited news, Jorge Azcón explained in Parliament that, in the ten months he has been in government, more than 22 billion euros of investment have arrived in Aragon, between technology, agri-food and logistics. In addition to the two investments this week, there are others such as the Microsoft data centre campus, worth 4.4 billion; the future macro-logistics centre of Inditex, worth 600 million ; the agri-food complex of the Costa Group, worth 469 million, or the decarbonisation of the manufacture of recycled paper by Saica, worth 100 million .
“We want to turn Aragon into the main technological hub in southern Europe,” said Azcón in Parliament, where he also explained the challenge of creating professional profiles for new needs. Aragon will increase the number of places in Computer Engineering and Mathematics degrees at the University of Zaragoza and, in Vocational Training, will launch 17 specialties linked to technology. On the other hand, the INAEM will allocate 9.7 million to qualification in employment and digital skills, so that Aragonese talent stays in the territory and even attracts others.
Leonor’s naturalness
But this week has been a week of brilliance: both economically and institutionally. The presentation of the medals of the Cortes and of Aragon and the appointment of Princess Leonor as Adoptive Daughter of Zaragoza has left a very good taste in the mouths of the Community. Firstly, due to the attitude and words of the person being honoured, full of authenticity and naturalness. Also, due to the display of the local heritage that is not sufficiently known, such as the Aljafería Palace and the Seo de Zaragoz, overshadowed by the popularity of the Pilar. And as an added bonus, the warmth of the people of Zaragoza, who perhaps would have liked to see Leonor more in the city.
But, as the Royal House has reiterated, she had come here to study. All in all, an impeccable act, in which another Zaragozan also operated, the diplomat Camilo Villarino, head of the Royal House since February and who accompanied Leonor, along with the president of Aragon and the Minister of Defense, at all times. The princess was not crowned in the Seo, as happened in the past with the kings of the Crown of Aragon. She was given a civil distinction, the Medal of Aragon, by the hands of a satisfied Jorge Azcón, who already knew that three days were beginning that crowned the first year of the elections that brought him to the presidency.
Calin Van Paris
Christopher Luu
Benjamin Wallace-Wells