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

Apple

Jul 10, 2017, 9:18 AM

Simon K.

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

According to a statement from Apple today, the tech giant is on course of developing a new data center in Denmark that should begin operations in the second quarter of 2019. The project is still in early stages, currently under judicial review, but should it go through, it would be Apple’s second data center in the country. What is more, Apple will stick to its profile as one of the ‘greenest’ companies on the planet, and, like its all other such facilities, this data center will be wholly powered by renewable energy.

"The planned facility in Aabenraa, like all of our data centers, will run on 100 percent renewable energy from day one, thanks to new clean energy sources we're adding," said Erik Stannow, Nordic manager for Apple.

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