El Burgo de Ebro, a town with a long history of industry and consolidated businesses in its three polygons and with an Amazon data center, continues to make efforts to diversify its economy and draw new investors, which promotes the town’s ability to grow sustainably, generate employment, and settle the population.
As a result of this work, the city council now has excellent initiatives for its industrial growth in its portfolio that are connected to new areas of the current economy, such as renewable energy, logistics, and e-commerce, which present the potential for the future.
Amazon data center
The town’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center, one of three that the US multinational has set up in Aragon along with those in Huesca and Villanueva de Gállego, was inaugurated in November of last year. In addition to setting a new standard for the cloud economy, its ignition has resulted in the development of new amazon jobs in the town.
According to Mayor Vicente Royo, the entry of the distribution behemoth has also had a “tractor effect” on other technological and e-commerce enterprises, who have knocked on the doors of the consistory interested in occupying land and with whom negotiations are made.
Increased industrial area size
The settlement of new investments entails enlarging the industrial area that is accessible in El Burgo, and the consistory has already started the process for amending the PGOU to permit the installation of big businesses.
3.4 million square meters of industrial land, or 14% of El Burgo de Ebro’s municipal territory, are currently distributed among the polygons of La Noria-El Vadillo, El Espartal I, and Espartal II.
3,500 employees and more than 50 businesses of all sizes and industries make up its industrial environment. The two paper industry leaders, Saica and Tronchetti, both employ over a thousand people. The remaining jobs are spread among other large enterprises, such as Tupersa and Grávalos, medium- and small-sized businesses, family-run operations, and local and family-owned businesses.
The El Espartal II polygon contains the 155,000 square meter site of Amazon‘s data center. Although the municipal industrial zones are virtually entirely occupied, Royo claims that this polygon is the only part of the land that has yet to be developed.
The future’s fuel
On the other hand, the city council has seized a significant project related to renewable energies and, specifically, with a booming energy vector like green hydrogen, a source of inexpensive and clean energy, as part of its resolve to diversify the business fabric and generate possibilities for the future.
In order to build a green hydrogen production facility in the province of Zaragoza, Enagás and the Aragonese Energy Corporation of Renewables (CEAR) have purchased an 80,000 square meter plot in the El Espartal II industrial park, just across from the Amazon Web Services facilities.
The project is well underway and has the backing of the Spanish government, which provided this energy installation with over 13 million euros in funding from the PERTE of renewable energies, renewable hydrogen, and storage, charged to the European Recovery Funds.
Because of its properties (lightweight, easy to store, and emitting no emissions), as well as its uses and benefits in the fields of industry and transportation, green hydrogen is regarded as the fuel of the future. The town of Zaragoza will become a part of this renewable gas infrastructure in Europe thanks to the upcoming El Burgo de Ebro plant.
