Apple's Investing $1.7bn on Two Entirely Renewable Energy Data Centres

[ScienceRocks]

Apple's Investing $1.7bn on Two Entirely Renewable Energy Data Centres

Apple has just announced that it is to invest €1.7 billion in two new "state-of-the-art" data centres for Europe, located in Ireland and Denmark.

The sites in County Galway and Denmark's central Jutland will use 100 per cent renewable energy and power Apple's iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage and Maps applications and Siri voice assistant.

Measuring 166,000 square metres apiece, the data centres will begin operations in 2017, and each will support a specific local initiative too. The County Galway project will include a scheme to recover land previously used for the harvesting of non-native trees and return native flora to the area, along with an outdoor education space for schools. The Danish data centre will capture excess heat and return it to the district's heating system to warm local homes.

Not bad for a source of energy that people say sucks.

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

Sniff, that's so green I think I'll call the gang for a brie and Grand cru luncheon, and a group hug or maybe two. So ummm, about that 95% of their products based on petrochemicals, you know, plastic...keep that under your snarky little commissar's tams, will you?

 

[Old Rocks]

Sweetie Pie, you silly old ass, we don't object to the use of oil as as feedstock for industry. What we object to is the burning of it in the atmosphere. That is dumb for two reasons, first, the addition of GHGs to an atmosphere with an overload of GHGs already, second, the waste of a valueable industrial resource.

What Apple is doing is wise. First, by becoming more independent for energy, it is more profitable for the company, and second, it isolates the company from fluctions in the price of energy, and disruptions on the grid.