Apple planning a second “all-green” data center in Denmark

Data centers are basically very large buildings filled with tons of servers, with the purpose of supporting wireless services and processes. In the case of Apple, the announced data center would power the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for users across Europe.

Such centers, as you could imagine, require spectacular amounts of energy to power all the silicon they hold inside. Cupertino has chosen the country for a data center location for a second time, apparently because of Denmark’s strong renewables infrastructure and abundant wind energy supplies.

Apple’s first data center in the country is set to kick off operations later this year in Viborg, Jutland region, and will allegedly be partially powered by recycled farm waste, among other eco-friendly sources. Apple has also vowed to transfer any generated heat from the work of that center to nearby residential areas, but we don’t know whether this would be effective for its future Aabenraa facility, too.

The announced data center would cost the company $921 million, while another such facility is also due to begin construction in Ireland, where Cupertino is working with local authorities to develop a new energy source.

source: Reuters