Apple building 171 acre solar panel farm to power NC data center

[dkf]

Apple has apparently begun the early stages of construction for a planned 171 acre solar panel farm across the street from its $1 billion data center located in Maiden, North Carolina. According to permits filed with Catawba County, the land is already being reworked under strict erosion control ordinances for what Apple is calling "Project Dolphin Solar Farm A Expanded." Project Dolphin is Apple's code name for its North Carolina data center.

Apple's huge data center came online in the spring of 2011 in order to power the company's iCloud and iTunes Store cloud services. The 500,000 square foot facility—described as "big-ass" by one data center expert—requires massive amounts of electricity to power and cool its racks of servers and storage arrays. Steve Jobs called the building "as eco-friendly as you can make a modern data center," thanks in no small part to its designer, the late data center efficiency expert Olivier Sanche. Despite this, Greenpeace criticized the fact that the area of North Carolina where it is located has one of the "dirtiest generation mixes in the US," a combination of coal and nuclear power.

A large solar array should help offset the reliance on coal-powered electricity from the local grid. Apple has noted in the past that its Cork, Ireland, and Elk Grove, California facilities both run on 100 percent renewable energy. The company's Austin, Texas offices use some renewable energy sources as well. The solar array appears to be part of Apple's overall commitment to making its operations as green as possible.

No details about the planned solar panel array or its potential power output are known at this time, but the Charlotte Observer noted that more details will likely become publicly available when Apple files for a building permit, according to Catawba County engineer Toni Norton.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/10/apple-building-171-acre-solar-panel-farm-to-power-nc-data-center.ars

[HopeHoops]

1. Did they remember to get a shitload of goats to mow underneath the panels?

That's not a joke. It is a very effective method used in a lot of solar collection farms.

[ThomWV]

3. A goat will starve to death in a field of grass

[HopeHoops]

5. Agreed, but they're fucking good at mowing it.

[mpgalloway]

11. Solar Doesn't Work..

I live in Lake Havasu City Arizona.
The sun shines all year long.

Our local paper runs full page articles
explaining to us how solar power does not
work.

This confuses me?

[buddysmellgood]

12. It's true. The sun is shining today, but it's cold outside. Solar does not work.

[alfredo]

20. I wonder how much of their ad revenue comes from the extraction industry?

[Matariki]

21. see NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?_r=1

[Atman]

2. Meh...I can build an open-source solar collector with cheap parts from PC Towne.

:hi:

Just thought I'd try to beat the haters to the punch.

[ThomWV]

4. Just imagine, if DC businesses did the same the solar collector would cover VA and MD

If one business requires 170 acres of collector then how many acres of collectors would be necessary to power even a small cities' business needs?

[Atman]

7. It's not really "one business."

A huge server farm takes up a lot more electricity than a bunch of office lightbulbs and computers. You're trying to downplay it by calling it "just one business," but it's really much more than that.

[Tesha]

8. The modern data centers that drive the Internet consume enormous amounts of power.

Per square foot, they consume more electricity than almost any
other human activity, and far more than your average office
building.

You can't compare the "170 acres" directly to office power needs.

Tesha

[FarCenter]

13. IIRC, roughly 2% of electrical generation is estimated to be consumed by the Internet

I'm not sure whether that includes home routers, or how thay allocated some part of shared cable/Internet/phone terminal gear.

[Firebrand Gary]

14. Apple uses more power than most people realize.

Additionally the solar facility is being built large enough to where it can sell the majority of the power back to the grid. Apple is looking to make a few bucks.

[Demonaut]

6. parts sourced from China I'm sure, but tax credits from the US will fund it

creatin' jobs...................in China..

[Tesha]

10. If your point is that we should manufacture photoelectric modules here, I'm all for that.

That *WAS* your point, right?

Tesha

[Demonaut]

24. completely!

[Shagbark Hickory]

18. Honestly, who cares?

Yeah the project might not create jobs. The jobs argument is what the conservatives use to discount alternative energy. IF you want jobs, just look to the natural gas and oil cartels.
But if you want clean energy and less dependence on dirty and dangerous energies, look to solar.

[The Straight Story]

9. They buying the panels from solyndra?

:evilgrin:

[Romulox]

15. The apple computers actual IN the data centers will still be made in Chinese suicide factories tho?

:hi:

[Tesha]

19. It's much more likely that the datacenter is full of pre-packaged containers full...

...of Sun or IBM computers made in those same
factories.

But that kind of takes the edge of your anti-Apple
rant, doesn't it?

Tesha

[Romulox]

22. LOL. "Everybody's buying from the suicide factory!" isn't very good PR.

"But that kind of takes the edge of your anti-Apple
rant, doesn't it?"

I own an iphone an Imac and a macbook. Am I supposed to pretend they weren't made in the suicide factory? Because they were. :hi:

[Shagbark Hickory]

16. Uh oh. Job killing solar panels.

:sarcasm:

[Romulox]

23. No way. Job CREATING. In China. nt

[Firebrand Gary]

17. Good god! Really people?

The negativity, apathy and cynicism is a little over the top, don't you think? I see a lot of complaining but see zero alternatives. I guess we should drill baby drill?