Apple’s Data Centers Now Running On 100 Percent Green Energy
by Brent Dirks
March 21, 2013
Apple has recently updated the environmental policy page on its website with some significant achievements.
All of the company’s data centers are now running on 100 percent renewable power. Worldwide, 75 percent of Apple’s corporate facilities are also using renewable energy sources:
Our progress toward 100 percent renewable energy. Our goal is to power every facility at Apple entirely with energy from renewable sources — solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. So we’re investing in our own onsite energy production, establishing relationships with suppliers to procure renewable energy off the grid, and reducing our energy needs even as our employee base grows. Our investments are paying off. We’ve already achieved 100 percent renewable energy at all of our data centers, at our facilities in Austin, Elk Grove, Cork, and Munich, and at our Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. And for all of Apple’s corporate facilities worldwide, we’re at 75 percent, and we expect that number to grow as the amount of renewable energy available to us increases. We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple.Just two years ago, only 35 percent of Apple’s corporate facilities were running on renewable energy, including wind, solar, and hydroelectric. After an outcry from Greenpeace last year, Apple made the commitment to power its data centers completely from renewable sources – most notably the large Maiden, N.C. location that primarily runs iCloud. Now according to Apple, the site has the nation’s largest end-user owned, on-site solar array and a massive fuel cell installation.
