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Apple Doubling Size of Fuel Cell Facility at North Carolina Data Center

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The Charlotte Observer reports that Apple has filed plans to double the size of its fuel cell facility at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina to 10 megawatts.
Fifty fuel cells adjacent to its $1 billion data center in Maiden are expected to be operating by January, Apple said in papers filed with the N.C. Utilities Commission. It will be fueled by "directed biogas" in which cleaned methane gas from a landfill is injected into a natural gas pipeline. [...]

California-based Apple says the initial 4.8-megawatt phase in Maiden began start-up and testing in October. In November it applied for an amended state permit to increase the project's size.
Click to expand...
apple_cupertino_fuel_cells.jpg
Fuel cells at Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California​
In North Carolina, Apple is combining its fuel cell facility with two massive solar farms to help achieve the company's goal of using 100% renewable energy at all of its data centers. At its originally planned 4.8-megwatt capacity, Apple's fuel cell facility in North Carolina was already said to be the largest in the United States not owned by a utility company.

Article Link: Apple Doubling Size of Fuel Cell Facility at North Carolina Data Center
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/12/04/apple-doubling-size-of-fuel-cell-facility-at-north-carolina-data-center/
A

apfeljonas

macrumors regular
Nov 28, 2012
151
0
Germany
Those fuel cells actually look very Apple-like. iCell! Also, great to know they are fuelling it with biogas, much better for the environment than solar and natural gas.
 
Chaszmyr

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
86
Awesome. All power-hungry things like data centers should be run on renewable energy.
 
mertyz

mertyz

macrumors regular
Sep 21, 2011
201
4
There should be a law forcing all data centers to be environment-friendly.
 
Rocketman

Rocketman

macrumors 603
Dec 2, 2001
6,191
1,186
Claremont, The intellectual capitol of the world.
Methane is the most abundant uncollected or wasted energy source on the planet. That way no matter the source these fuel cells can use them. Recovering methane from landfills is a solution waiting for a need and thus is seen as "very green" in this political environment (Solyndra, etc.). No matter the source methane is among the most green and efficient and available fuel sources.

Rocketman

cite:

http://www.bloomenergy.com/clean-energy/

http://www.bloomenergy.com/fuel-cell/solid-oxide-fuel-cell-animation/
 
Last edited:
TrentS

TrentS

macrumors 6502
Sep 24, 2011
491
238
Overland Park, Kansas
Aliens Are Coming!!!

I can't wait for the Jesse Ventura conspiracy show on how Apple and its fuel cell facilities are going to take over the world, with the help of "skinwalker" aliens and magnate Robert Bigelow.

"What the heck are they building there? A gateway portal to another dimension?! And we ask questions, and all we get are straight answers? Something smells funny here."

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
L

Leonard1818

macrumors 68020
Nov 15, 2011
2,460
403
iFart

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in all seriousness, I'm glad to see Apple doing this. What's good for the environment is good for EVERYBODY
 
eleven59

eleven59

macrumors regular
Jul 21, 2008
163
0
Now if someone could get to working on Mr. fusion....

The most abundant source of energy could be trash lol
 
R

rmwebs

macrumors 68040
Apr 6, 2007
3,140
0
apfeljonas said:
Those fuel cells actually look very Apple-like. iCell! Also, great to know they are fuelling it with biogas, much better for the environment than solar and natural gas.
Click to expand...

Those arent fuel cells, that's the new Mac Pro design :p

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Allenbf said:
Will this mean less downtime for iMessage?
Click to expand...

Nope. More power and more servers in the same place will not fix that issue. Apple needs to get themselves a real cloud - not a fake one. Only that will fix iMessage and Facetime reliability.
 
P

petsounds

macrumors 65816
Jun 30, 2007
1,493
519
Is this due to increased load demands at the data center, or was this fueled (pardon the pun) by post-Sandy worries about uptime in the face of increasingly severe storms?
 
Mr. Retrofire

Mr. Retrofire

macrumors 603
Mar 2, 2010
5,064
518
www.emiliana.cl/en
mertyz said:
There should be a law forcing all data centers to be environment-friendly.
Click to expand...
Says the SUV driver. ;-)

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TrentS said:
I can't wait for the Jesse Ventura conspiracy show on how Apple and its fuel cell facilities are going to take over the world, with the help of "skinwalker" aliens and magnate Robert Bigelow.

"What the heck are they building there? A gateway portal to another dimension?! And we ask questions, and all we get are straight answers? Something smells funny here."

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
What is your problem?
 
Mr. Retrofire

Mr. Retrofire

macrumors 603
Mar 2, 2010
5,064
518
www.emiliana.cl/en
mattskaj said:
Must be nice to sit on a board you get to sell your green energy products to. Conflict of Interest?
Click to expand...
Where do you see Al Gore?

Here?
http://www.bloomenergy.com/about/board-of-directors/

Or here?
http://www.elementmarkets.com/management-team.php

I cannot find him on these pages. This means either
a) i'm blind
or
b) your assertion that “Al Gore makes a few bucks” is unfounded.

This is probably a case of:
H.A.T.E.R.S. = Having Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success!

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rmwebs said:
Those arent fuel cells, that's the new Mac Pro design :p
Click to expand...
Sure! ;-)
 
Liquorpuki

Liquorpuki

macrumors 68020
Jun 18, 2009
2,286
8
City of Angels
petsounds said:
Is this due to increased load demands at the data center, or was this fueled (pardon the pun) by post-Sandy worries about uptime in the face of increasingly severe storms?
Click to expand...

Probably just trying to offset as much load as possible so they don't have to buy as much from Duke Energy.

That and the redundancy will help when they have to take one of the installations offline for maintenance or other reasons.
 
RobertMartens

RobertMartens

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2002
1,177
300
Tokyo, Japan
Chaszmyr said:
Awesome. All power-hungry things like data centers should be run on renewable energy.
Click to expand...

I find this to be a pointless statement. All electricity is the same and all things use electricity. There are many more houses than data centers, therefore I think all houses should run on renewable energy.
 
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