Apple Plans to Go Entirely Green: Datacenters Lead the Way

Apple is making tremendous advances in reaching its goal of 100% reliance on renewable energy: all of the company’s datacenters are now powered by solar, wind, hydro, or geothermal energy. The overall goal is to convert every facility to green energy; currently the worldwide consumption is at 75%, representing a 114% increase between 2010 and 2012.

The datacenter in Maiden, NC, is the hallmark of this approach, having earned the LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It includes the nation’s largest end-user owned onsite solar photovoltaic array, capable of producing 42 million kWh of renewable energy along with a fuel cell station that uses biogas to produce 83 million kWh of energy annually.

Image provided courtesy of Apple.

Each facility is converted to take advantage of the locally available renewable-energy sources. The datacenter in Prineville, OR, for example, uses hydro, solar, and geothermal energy directly attained from local wholesale purchases. Meanwhile, the facility in Newark, CA, obtains its power directly from the wind.

CEO Tim Cook’s plan for achieving net-zero dirty energy usage abides by three principles: it must add to what local regulations require, the clean energy produced must dislodge dirtier forms of energy in the local power grid in order to better serve the community, and the energy must be accounted for to prevent double counting.