Querétaro Adds 298 MW in Data Centers in 2026; Grid Access Is Blocking New Projects

Land with guaranteed access to electrical power, what the industry calls powered land, became the scarcest asset for data center developers in North America in 2026, outranking location or land cost. Grid interconnection timelines reaching up to two years in markets like Texas are forcing operators to self-generate electricity or abandon projects altogether, according to industry executives interviewed by Latitude Media.

The same dynamic is now evident in Mexico. According to CBRE's Global Data Center Trends 2026 report, Querétaro accumulated 298.2 megawatts (MW) of data center inventory in Q1 2026, a 450.2% year-over-year increase and the highest growth rate in Latin America. Net absorption for the quarter reached 213 MW, leading the region. The report itself warns that transmission grid capacity constraints are already limiting expansion in that market: developers must coordinate with local utilities or self-generate electricity, adding cost and execution risk to every project.

Ian Black, Global Vice President of Energy at Digital Realty, which operates 300 facilities across 50 metropolitan areas, told Latitude Media that the company has been waiting two years for an interconnection study from Texas utility Oncor. Utilities, Black explained, are increasingly demanding financial guarantees and proof that the developer is the end customer before allocating capacity. Holly Adams, Vice President of Energy at Beale Infrastructure, confirmed in the same interview that her firm walked away from a project in Oklahoma despite having secured power, due to community opposition: local council members privately expressed support but refused to vote in favor for fear of the political cost. In Querétaro, the data center vacancy rate rose to 10.6% in the first quarter, up from 0.9% a year earlier, reflecting that new hyperscale supply, anchored by AWS, Microsoft, and CloudHQ deployments, is outpacing the grid's capacity to absorb it, according to CBRE.

The next phase of data center expansion in Mexico will depend less on the availability of industrial land than on the pace at which transmission infrastructure is expanded. CBRE's report ranks Querétaro as the second-largest Latin American market by inventory, trailing only São Paulo at 536.7 MW, but warns that without new grid capacity, hyperscale operators will begin evaluating alternative corridors such as Monterrey and Jalisco.

This article was drafted with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.