Apple Inc. Confirms 2nd Renewables-Powered Data Center In Denmark

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Apple plans to build a second data center in Denmark which will be completely powered by renewable energy, according to the Ministry of Climate Energy in Denmark. Apple’s Nordic director Erik Stannow confirmed the news of Apple’s Denmark data center to Reuters.

Apple’s Denmark data center to use 100% renewable energy

Denmark has become the hottest destination for data centers lately, with some big tech companies flocking to the country. At the beginning of this year, Facebook announced plans for a data center in Denmark, its third outside the United States. Last month, it was reported that Google bought a 73.2-hectare plot in Denmark to built a data center campus.

Apple’s Denmark data center is expected to be in full operation by 2019. The Cupertino, California-based company will primarily use the data center to ramp up services like the App Store, iMessage, its artificial intelligence assistant Siri, Maps, and others.

“We’re thrilled to be expanding our data center operations in Denmark, and investing in new sources of clean power,” Erik Stannow, Apple’s Nordic manager, told Reuters in an email.

Further, Stannow informed the media agency that the facility, which will be built in Aabenraa, will run on 100% renewable energy from day one, just like the company’s other data centers.

Since 2013, Apple has sourced 100% of the energy for all its data centers from renewable sources. At present, the company has 945 MW of renewable projects either in operation or under development in the United States, Singapore, Japan and China.

Apple’s Ireland data center still awaiting approval

For Apple, this will be its second data center in Denmark, and it will cost $920 million. In February 2015, Apple announced an investment of €1.7 billion (£1.5 billion) in building data centers in Ireland and Denmark, costing €850 million (£752 million) each. The Denmark data center is expected to start functioning later this year, but the Ireland one has yet to start.

Apple’s Ireland facility has been delayed, largely due to environmental concerns raised by area residents. It has been nearly two years since the battle to get approval for the construction of the €850 million data center went legal. Now the company will have to wait until July 27 to learn the court’s decision about the project. This is not the first time the case has been delayed. Earlier, a Commercial Court in Dublin postponed the decision from June 23 to June 30 due to a shortage of judges, notes Data Economy.

Apple is one of the few companies that never shy away from its responsibility to the environment, and their first center in Denmark is a proof of that. Not only will the center be powered by renewable energy, but the company will also collect the heat generated and offer it to the district heating system to warm local homes. Apart from that, the data center will also make a significant contribution to the nation’s economy, noted 9to5Mac.

According to the Danish government, the $950 million project is the largest foreign capital investment in the history of the country. The data centers in Ireland and Denmark collectively account for Apple’s biggest investment in Europe ever.

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