In July, Apple announced plans to build a solar energy farm near their North Carolina data center. The farm near Claremont, North Carolina will sit on 100 acres of land and produce 17.5 MW of energy.
The solar farm is one of three solar facilities that will power Apple's North Carolina data center. Built in 2012, the building earned LEED Platinum certification for contributing to data center sustainability. The facility houses some of Apple's most popular offerings, including Siri and the company's cloud services.
The other solar farms are also located nearby. The first was built on 100 acres across the street from the North Carolina data center in Maiden. The other farm was built in Conover on 200 acres. Both farms provide 20 MW of power. An additional 10 MW is also provided by a bio? gas fuel cell facility.
The North Carolina data center is located inside a 500,000 square foot facility and Apple plans to build a second similarly-sized building next door. The expansion was announced in February and will include a smaller "tactical" data center. Although the facility is already completely sustainable, the new solar farm will help to power the new building, as well as other Apple ventures such as retail stores. Almost half of Apple's more than 200 brick and mortar locations are powered from sustainable energy sources.
The company plans to have the new solar farm operational within five years of the project's commencement. Apple also plans to gift the city of Claremont with two parcels of the land bought for the farm to be used as recreation space, greenways and for other public works projects.
