Apple's N.C. Data Center Goes Green

Taking a massive lead on green electricity generation, Apple announced in a report on environmental carbon footprint that its data center in North Carolina built on a 500,000 sq.ft. area will be powered by a solar farm and a fuel cell facility. It is also the nation’s largest end-user-owned solar farm.

This data center primarily is home to back-end storage and sync service for Apple’s iCloud and Siri, the voice intelligent assistant, a part of iPhone4S and has been awarded the LEED Platinum certification for this data center.

“We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification,” the company said in its report. “Our goal is to run the Maiden facility with high percentage renewable energy mix.”

This solar farm has been built on a 171 acre farm that is adjacent to the data center. The company issued a brief report on the project which stated that Apple officially received permission to reshape the land in accordance to the permits in Catawba County. This facility will supply 42 million kWh of eco-friendly energy to the data center annually.

The facility also houses the largest non-utility fuel cell installation which will also supply power to the data center. This is an effort undertaken by the company to reduce environmental impact of their data centers through energy-efficient, green building design.

Apple still continues its effort at reducing emissions. “We continue to work toward the goal of achieving a net zero-energy program for our corporate facilities worldwide.”, said a source. “For more than 10 years, Apple has purchased renewable energy for our facilities around the globe. Our facilities located in Cork, Ireland; Munich, Germany; Austin, Texas; and Elk Grove, California are currently using 100 percent renewable energy resources.”

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