Apple scrubs dirty iCloud data centre with second solar wash 2012 clean date stated

Apple is flying the green flag on the North Carolina data centre that will power iCloud – the very same one that was slammed by Greenpeace for being dirty.
The iPad shop has disclosed information on a second solar-power generation facility at the data centre in Maiden, North Carolina, while also launching  a new page to explain its plans for its consumption of renewable energy.

Apple is building two solar array installations at the billion-dollar site. When it first detailed Maiden in February, the fondleslab-maker spoke of just one.

The "new" renewable energy page says there will be two high-efficiency solar cells with solar tracking systems on separate 100-acre sites at Maiden, along with biogas-powered fuel cells. The companies supplying the solar systems to both sites are SunPower and start-up Bloom Energy.

The renewable energy page states Maiden will be powered using nothing but renewable sources of electricity by the end of 2012. Apple has not given an actual date for when Maiden will be completed.

Otherwise, the site repackages Apple’s response to the Greenpeace report last month that criticised Maiden for consuming watts generated using coal- and nuclear-fired power stations owned by the local power utility.

Apple’s site restates its earlier claim that 60 per cent of the power at the Maiden site would be generated using renewable sources.

The site seems a more measured and coordinated response beyond the simple PR statement Apple produced after the Greenpeace report was first released.
This article comes from:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/18/apple_green_datacenter_response/

Apple's main data center to go fully renewable this year

Apple said it plans to make its Maiden, N.C., data center run entirely off renewable energy by the end of the year.
The company said it's building two solar array installations in the area, which when combined will bring in 84 million kilowatt-hours of power annually. Apple is also at work on its bio-gas fuel cell installation, set to be completed later this year.
All told, Apple says it will produce 60 percent of the power it requires to run the data center on site, procuring the other 40 percent from "local and regional sources" that are renewable.
Facilities like the one in Maiden power Apple's growing cloud services effort. Last June the company introduced iCloud, its storage and sync service, which relies on the data centers to store user data and information. The data centers also play a role in powering Siri, the voice assistant feature for the iPhone 4S.
Apple posted information about its plans in a new section of its environmental Web site today. In an interview with Reuters, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer noted that the two solar farms would be twice as large as the company had originally let on. A proposal that surfaced earlier today noted that the farm across the street from the data center was given regulatory approval by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

Apple's updated data center layout.

(Credit: Apple)

The new information comes on the heels of a demonstration against Apple by Greenpeace. Earlier this week, the environmental activist group set up a portable building at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as projecting messages onto the company's glass entryway. Both were the latest part of the group's Clean Our Cloud campaign, which pressures tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon to use less dirty energy to power their data centers.
The Maiden facility will be the latest used by the company to run entirely off renewable energy, Apple said. The company's operations centers in Austin, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; and Cork, Ireland, as well as a facility in Munich, Germany, already meet that metric. Apple says its upcoming data center in Prineville, Ore., will also run entirely off renewable energy.
This article comes from:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57436553-37/apples-main-data-center-to-go-fully-renewable-this-year/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=