The leading technology company will invest 1.7 Billion euros in state-of-the-art facilities that will allow Apple to run on green power entirely.
On 23rd of February 2015 in Cork (Ireland), Apple have announced a 1.7 billion euros plan to build and operate two data centres in Europe, each powered by 100% green power. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store®, App Store℠, iMessage®, Maps and Siri® for customers across Europe.
“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
Like all Apple data centres, the new facilities will run entirely on clean, renewable energy sources from day one. Apple will also work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future. These facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data centre.
“We believe that innovation is about leaving the world better than we found it, and that the time for tackling climate change is now,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environmental Initiatives. “We’re excited to spur green industry growth in Ireland and Denmark and develop energy systems that take advantage of their strong wind resources. Our commitment to environmental responsibility is good for the planet, good for our business and good for the European economy.”
Usually Apple offsets its data centres’ power use by directly investing in renewable energy capacity. This should be the case also for the Denmark site, where some generation will be done on site. However, in Ireland the offsetting would take eventually the form of new projects in other parts of the country. So far from Apple have not specified the type of renewable energy they will use in the centres neither they have released details on the energy load of their new European projects, and thus it is not clear how much new capacity the new projects will be added to either country’s renewable sector.
The two data centres, each measuring 166,000 square metres, are expected to begin operations in 2017.
In Viborg, Denmark, Apple will eliminate the need for additional generators by locating the data centre adjacent to one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations. The facility is also designed to capture excess heat from equipment inside the facility and conduct it into the district heating system to help warm homes in the neighboring community.
Read the full press release here.
