back to article Apple forks out nearly $2bn for two ripe, green data centres

Apple is spending $1.9bn (£1.24bn) on a pair of big, green, environmentally friendly data centres in Ireland and Denmark. The fruity firm is splashing the cash (equivalent to €1.7bn) on two 160,000m2 facilities in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s Jutland. The facilities will back-end the iTunes store, App Store, iMessage …

  1. Nifty Silver badge

    Finally a green apple?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yes. Two spanking new datacenters and not one server running an Apple OS.

      Why does a company with 130 Billion dollars need a tax break?

  2. Ru'

    $1.9bn (£1.24)

    Wow, the pound sure has risen recently...

  3. Miss Config
    Holmes

    WHAT Fields ?

    What I want to know is who in Apple is a Liverpool supporter, singing You'll Never Walk Alone in The Fields of Athenry. Because that is exactly where this bit barn is going to be built

    1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

      Re: WHAT Fields ?

      The Liverpool supporters' song has different lyrics, and its chorus substitutes "Anfield Road" for "Athenry", so no...

      However, you only need to assemble around ten Irish people at a sporting event involving Ireland before the probability of the original version of this song being sung reaches 1.

      1. Miss Config
        Coat

        Re: WHAT Fields ?

        Fields of 'Anfield Road' ?

        That is genuine news to me, thanks. All those times I heard Liverpool supporters sing that on TV and I never twigged.

        Must be that Liverpool has no great history, in music terms.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Someone must have told apple

    That all Irish energy is green.

    Paddytricity - the green electric company.

  5. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

    Servicing that demand?

    I wonder where they're going to find the generating capacity for this centre. The projected consumption will be equivalent to the current domestic demand of the Greater Galway area (about 160,000 people).

    Ireland does not have a lot of spare generating capacity, and despite what you might think if you've ever "enjoyed" a walk along the Cliffs of Moher, the wind doesn't blow 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, which rules out the most available "green" option in this country.

    I expect Apple to be sold pretty much all of the little "green" energy that's produced here, while the providers buy in nuclear-generated power from France and UK to meet the resulting shortfall. (I have no issue with nuclear power, btw; just find it ironic that this will be the likely outcome).

    1. gnasher729 Silver badge

      Re: Servicing that demand?

      In the USA, Apple doesn't buy "green" energy (which as you observed is pointless because someone else has to buy non-green energy then), but builds massive solar farms, for example, supported by massive fuel cells so they can run in the night. I suppose they will do something similar in Ireland and Denmark and avoid buying energy from the outside as much as possible.

      1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Re: Servicing that demand?

        If you made a panel that could convert squally drizzle to energy, Ireland's the place for it, but solar? no...

        Wind is the only readily available renewable/"green" in Ireland, and that's not stable enough for a data centre. Power to serve the facility's base-line load has to come from somewhere, so I'm curious about whether they'll surprise the world and have their contractors address this reality with a technical solution (there are a few storage options, but they're expensive and untested at this scale), or go with routine and deploy the usual eco-hogwash of compensatory planting, carbon credits and technology funding.

        I also can't help but think that when you scale applications up to the point where they're burning a Terawatt-Hour of electrical power every year to run, there's scope for optimising software to conserve energy, not just time or storage.

        1. Richard Taylor 2

          Re: Servicing that demand?

          I think you will find there is a lot of wave and tidal energy as well

        2. Corin

          Re: Servicing that demand?

          Perhaps they might be looking to set availability flags for each of their datacentres based on the local power / cooling requirements? Windy, cold day in Ireland? Get it doing all the work. A warm still evening with no solar, shift the load elsewhere.

          While this might not solve all the problems it could certainly help out.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Servicing that demand?

        Solar energy in Ireland....Jeyyasss - I'm being burnt to a crisp here in Galway....

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Servicing that demand?

      "I wonder where they're going to find the generating capacity for this centre."

      Peat burning power stations? If you wait a few thousand years all those bogs that Bord na Mona have been cutting will have regenerated.

    3. Sealand
      Boffin

      Re: Servicing that demand?

      The location in Denmark is right next to the converter station on the HVDC connection to Norway and a major hub on the national grid. They'll have power allright.

      Furthermore, the plan is to feed excess heat from the data centre into the already existing centralized heating infrastructure for the nearby towns. So they'll make money from the waste heat. Unless they're taxed into hell for it, of course, but it's been done before:

      http://www.symbiosis.dk/en

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Apple will get more for its money by building in the euro zone than had if it had gone elsewhere"

    It did go elsewhere — it went to Denmark.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      100% correct, but the author is still correct too

      Correct about Denmark not being in the Euro zone as they still have DKK, but as the currencies have an effectively fixed exchange rate, the thrust of the author's comment is still correct.

  7. Chris Evans

    Is Data Centre energy requirements <> Apple Manufacturing?

    I wonder if Apples Data Centre energy usage is greater or less than their subcontractor manufacturers usage per year. I Suspect Manufacturing will be considerably more. Green energy usage is to be applauded but I hope they will not be economical with the truth in their PR.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is Data Centre energy requirements <> Apple Manufacturing?

      Anytime anyone "goes green" (especially Apple) some spoilsport has to point out there are some non-green elements. Can't you be happy they're doing something positive, instead of whining that they aren't doing enough to suit you?

      Even if their subs were 100% renewable you could make the argument about the aluminum they use, or the Gorilla glass, or the chips TSMC/Samsung fabs for them, and so on. NO ONE in the CE industry is anywhere remotely close to green when you consider the entire chain, but even Apple can exert very limited control of that chain.

      They might be able to put some pressure on Foxconn, but their "manufacturing" is already pretty green as it is very labor intensive - the primary energy is probably keeping the lights on for all those people to see what they are doing assembling parts by hand! But further down the chain, they certainly can't tell TSMC to build a fab that runs on renewable energy to fab their chips, and insist that TSMC get their wafers from silicon boule suppliers running on renewable energy. Samsung may be a smaller player in the fab world, but again Apple couldn't tell them how to run their fab (anyway no one has ever even tried to build a fab that runs on 100% renewable energy)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Legitimizing tax-avoidance?

    Are they building in Ireland so they can continue their tax-avoidance scheme even after legislating bodies attempt to close the loophole(s)?

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