Previewed at WWDC, launching in the fall.
Apple Purchases 200 Acres for Second Solar Farm Near North Carolina Data Center
Earlier this year, Apple announced that as part of an effort to power all of its data centers with 100% renewable energy it would be building a second 20-megawatt solar farm a few miles away from its new Maiden, North Carolina data center. The new solar farm would complement the previously announced 20-megawatt facility that appears to be nearing completion directly across the street from the data center.
Solar panels at Apple's first North Carolina solar farm (Source: Jeremy Detter/Hickory Daily Record)
The location of the second solar farm was not immediately revealed at that time, but the Hickory Daily Record now reports (via 9to5Mac) that Apple has just purchased 200 acres land for the solar farm at a cost of $3 million. The plot is located nearly 15 miles from the data center and is being co-located with a new North Carolina Data Campus designed to attract other companies in need of data center capacity.
Solar panels at Apple's first North Carolina solar farm (Source: Jeremy Detter/Hickory Daily Record)
The location of the second solar farm was not immediately revealed at that time, but the Hickory Daily Record now reports (via 9to5Mac) that Apple has just purchased 200 acres land for the solar farm at a cost of $3 million. The plot is located nearly 15 miles from the data center and is being co-located with a new North Carolina Data Campus designed to attract other companies in need of data center capacity.
Apple recently closed on the land purchase that includes a tract of 218.885 acres and another tract of 0.251 acres, according to deeds and a plat book at the Catawba County Register of Deeds. [...]Several local governments have banded together to create the new North Carolina Data Campus, which has purchased an additional 55 acres for its purposes at the site. Facebook and Microsoft had reportedly looked at the site as a potential data center, but ultimately selected other locations due to a lack of existing infrastructure. The new data campus entity will work to provide the necessary infrastructure in order to make the site more appealing to other companies.
The Conover site is the only other property Apple now owns in the area in addition to the main data center campus and solar farm in Maiden. With the two solar farms and a bio-gas-powered 5-megawatt fuel cell installation, it will be the largest non-utility installation in the country, according to Apple. The company expects to generate 124 million kWh a year, which would power the equivalent of 10,874 homes, Apple says on its website.
[ 47 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
75 months ago
Unfortunately, they used the Maps app on iOS 6 and accidentally placed the solar panels on Neptune.
75 months ago
Bunch of Hippies
Solar? What a bunch of wimpy liberals.
If they really wanted to generate some power, they'd built a big coal power plant right next to the data center. The smog will keep people from getting to close to the data center
Solar? What a bunch of wimpy liberals.
If they really wanted to generate some power, they'd built a big coal power plant right next to the data center. The smog will keep people from getting to close to the data center
75 months ago
Can't wait to see how many acres of forest will be bulldozed for Apple's next "green" energy source.
Do your homework so you don't appear to be stupid. I drive by the site on my way yo Atlanta on a regular basis. Much of the site was fields. The number of trees that came down was minimal. The yellow outline is what Apple bought. Many of the trees are still there.
75 months ago
Can't wait to see how many acres of forest will be bulldozed for Apple's next "green" energy source.
75 months ago
Probably very similar to the way it operates at night. The DC is connected to the main grid and Apple will get most of its energy from the Grid. Just at sunny times the solar facility will generate much more energy than the DC needs so Apple will sell that energy to the utility. It will net out that Apple runs only on renewable, but most of the time (all night and during cloudy days) it will not be running on electricity generated by the solar facility.
Well said. Mostly for publicity, I assume.
75 months ago
That's got to be a *itch to mow, having to get under all those panels.
It's ok. Apple is used to hiring below minimum wage non-Americans for everything else. This should be no different for them.
75 months ago
Nuclear would have been nice (totally weather/sunlight independent).
Today's technology allows for a much smaller footprint and likely be able to build it underground (ie: highly weather resistant)
Not green?
You know how much fossil fuel US aircraft carriers and submarines they themselves burn in their decades long service life?
None.
Today's technology allows for a much smaller footprint and likely be able to build it underground (ie: highly weather resistant)
Not green?
You know how much fossil fuel US aircraft carriers and submarines they themselves burn in their decades long service life?
None.
74 months ago
again what morons at apple, putting a huge solar farm in north carolina.
north carolina is below average for solar
http://www.wri.org/image/view/11262/_original
no one ever heard of florida? sunshine state
arizona? new mexico?
because NC has low sunshine this means to get the same amount of power as would be obtained in arizona, they had to double the size of the solar farm.
north carolina is below average for solar
http://www.wri.org/image/view/11262/_original
no one ever heard of florida? sunshine state
arizona? new mexico?
because NC has low sunshine this means to get the same amount of power as would be obtained in arizona, they had to double the size of the solar farm.
[ Read All Comments ]
Apple Pay today launched in Poland, according to reports from several MacRumors readers who are living in the country and Polish Apple site ThinkApple. iPhone, iPad, and Mac users in Poland are now...
The Australian government today fined Apple $9 million for misleading some customers into believing they could not have their iOS devices fixed by Apple if they had been previously repaired by a...
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the second 10.13.6 beta.
The...
Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming tvOS 11.4.1 update to developers for testing purposes, one week after seeding the second tvOS 11.4.1 beta and three weeks after releasing tvOS 11.4,...
On Saturday, Beyoncé and Jay-Z launched a new collaborative album called "Everything is Love" exclusively to Tidal subscribers, the streaming service that Jay-Z owns. Just under two days...
Two years after its release in the summer of 2016, Pokémon Go will officially add Pokémon trading between friends within the app later this week. The feature is coming via a new "Friends"...
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been spending the weekend in Amsterdam, where he met historian Koen Kleijn and iPhone photographer Annet de Graaf.
The Apple chief tweeted on Sunday about his...
AT&T has launched a new Father's Day deal for the next few days, offering new and existing customers who purchase an iPhone X as an upgrade or a new line a second iPhone X at no additional...
