Perhaps chastened by recent stories about their poor environmental scorecard, and getting the fifth lowest score in Greenpeace’s How Clean Is Your Cloud? report, Apple Inc. seems to be changing its iTune and, at least as far as one new data center is concerned, is seeking to have 100% of its power generated from renewable sources. The new Maiden, North Carolina, facility will require 20 megawatts of power when it gets up to speed, and 60% of that power will be generated on-site.
We’re currently building two solar array installations in and around Maiden. These sites use high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system. A 100-acre, 20-megawatt installation on the same site as our data center will produce 42 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy annually. A 100-acre site located a few miles away will produce another 42 million kWh. Together that’s 84 million kWh of clean, renewable energy supplied annually. When our bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation comes online later this year, it will provide more than 40 million kWh of renewable energy annually. This means Apple will be producing enough onsite renewable energy — 124 million kWh — to power the equivalent of 10,874 homes.
Apple plans to purchase the remaining 40% of its power from “clean, renewable energy generated by local and regional sources.” The company is also seeking to add renewable energy sources to its other data centers and its corporate HQ.