Apple announced in late February that it is investing nearly $2 billion in the creation of two Europe data centers. The new facilities, located in Ireland and Denmark, will offer a total of 1.7 million square feet of available space. The data centers will become Apple's largest project in Europe and among the biggest computing sites in the world.
As with the company's other facilities, the new buildings will be powered with 100 percent renewable energy. The naturally chilly climates of both countries will allow for more sustainable cooling methods to be used and will save the company money on equipment costs. The new Europe data centers will have the lowest environmental impact of any Apple sites yet, and the company is working with local partners to create additional renewable energy projects.
"We're excited to spur green industry growth in Ireland and Denmark and develop energy systems that take advantage of their strong wind resources," said Lisa Jackson, vice president of Apple environmental initiatives.
The environmentally friendly initiatives do not stop with the use of clean energy, however. Apple plans to start a native tree-planting initiative during the construction of the Ireland data center to replace the non-native trees that will be cut down to make way for the site. At the Denmark data center, excess heat created by the facility's equipment will be used to warm homes in the area.
Along with helping to boost European availability of popular Apple services, the new facilities will also allow the company to meet demand from local customers to keep their data stored in the continent. The facilities will be used to host data for the iTunes App Store, iMessage, Siri and Apple Maps. Both Europe data centers are expected to be operational in 2017.
Brought to you by WiredRE, the nation's leading cloud, colocation, and data center advisory firm.
