The energy company Solatio is studying the conversion of its planned green hydrogen megaproject in the Brazilian state of Piauí into a data center complex, after facing regulatory and legal hurdles.
The original project, called H2V Piauí, envisioned the production of green hydrogen and ammonia, with an electrolysis capacity of 3GW and an integrated 9GW solar network to supply the operation.
The alternative of a data center began to be considered after the Federal Court of Piauí suspended the installation license for the green hydrogen project, at the request of the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF). The decision cited concerns about water and electricity permits, as well as the risk of overloading the power grid.
Solatio complied with the court order and immediately suspended activities related to the hydrogen project, beginning to “evaluate alternatives” for the area – among them the implementation of a large data center.
In April last year, the National Electric System Operator (ONS) had already blocked access to the grid for Solatio’s original green hydrogen projects in Piauí, citing the risk of structural overload and voltage collapse at adjacent substations.
In an interview with BNamericas in August, Solatio’s business development director, Eduardo Azevedo, said that data centers had become major competitors for energy compared with green hydrogen projects.
“The [data center projects] have emerged as major competitors, demanding a lot of energy in short timeframes. If they are not served within two or three years in terms of grid infrastructure, Brazil will lose ground,” said Azevedo on the occasion.
“These projects are also highly competitive in terms of attracting investments. By comparison, a 3GW hydrogen project costs 26 billion (bn) reais, while 3GW in data centers costs 70bn reais, with higher added value and lower risk. That is why, even without direct intervention, ONS tends to prioritize more mature projects such as data centers.”
Challenges
As reported by BNamericas, Solatio requested this month that Aneel revoke the authorization concessions for the Araxá Novo Um to Três, Walter Fróes Seis to Seis and Pedra do Reino Um to Dez photovoltaic plants in Minas Gerais, due to curtailment.
The company emphasized that, with the publication of Law No. 15.269/25 – resulting from Provisional Measure (MP) 1.304/25 – expectations of restoring the project’s economic attractiveness were eliminated, “especially in view of the definitive removal of mechanisms to encourage consumption”.
At the end of November, the company also asked Aneel to revoke the permits for the Morro do Preto One to Forty photovoltaic solar plants, citing the increase in curtailment, with direct impacts on the predictability and stability of generation, in addition to the country’s high interest rate, currently at 15%.
Data centers in Piauí
This would not be the first data processing project in Piauí.
The state government has been pursuing a strategy to attract data centers, using the availability of renewable energy sources in the region as a differentiator, despite challenges such as connectivity and the supplier chain.
As reported by BNamericas, the company Enegix is evaluating a data center project focused on bitcoin mining in the state.
Piauí also leads the Brazilian project SoberanIA, which involves the participation of companies such as Scala Data Centers, Modular, Telebras and Celba Energia, among others.
The initiative of the Piauí state government, in partnership with the MCTI, aims to develop a 100% Brazilian and sovereign artificial intelligence (AI), focused on Portuguese-language models.
The project includes the creation of an “AI Factory” in Piauí and the implementation of a sovereign cloud with Telebras data centers, ensuring full control over data processing.
(The original version of this content was written in Portuguese)
