Apple invests in groundbreaking wind turbines to power Viborg data centre
Written by James Orme Tue 8 Sep 2020
The 200-meter-tall turbines are expected to produce 62-gigawatt hours each year
Apple is investing in the construction of two of the world’s largest onshore wind turbines to supply energy to its new Viborg data centre in Denmark.
The tech giant said the 62-gigawatt hours of energy produced by the 200-metre-tall turbines in Esbjerg will advance its 2030 carbon-neutral goal, announced in July.
As well as powering Apple’s new server farm, all surplus energy from the sustainable development will be routed into the Danish grid.
Apple’s Viborg data centre, which helps power the Apple App Store, iMessage and Siri, only officially opened its doors this week, following construction setbacks.
Apple began work on the facility, which is powered by 100 percent renewable energy, way back in 2016 but ditched the company it hired to build the data centre after it missed two key deadlines in September 2018 and April 2019.
The tech giant had plans for two other data centres in Aarbenraa, Denmark and County Galway, Ireland but neither ended up seeing the light of day. The $921m Aarbenraa facility was cancelled following construction delays while resistance from the locals blighted the planned €850m campus in Athenry, Galway.
Last month, Apple announced plans to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030.
While Apple’s operations are already powered by 100 percent renewable energy, Apple is aiming for all its devices to have net-zero climate impact by the decade’s end.
Transitioning European-based suppliers to renewable power is a key hurdle to cross to achieve this objective. Apple revealed Germany-based Varta is the latest supplier to commit to running its Apple production with 100 percent renewable power.
72 manufacturing partners in 17 different countries have committed to 100 percent renewable energy for Apple production since the company launched its Supplier Clean Energy Program in 2015.
Written by James Orme Tue 8 Sep 2020