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Aerial Photos of Recent Work at Apple's North Carolina Data Center

Really?!?!?

Ripping out 100 Acres of trees and farm land for a 20 measly Megawatts... not a very efficient use of natural land resource.. I mean... I applaud the whole green thing... we should all be better stewards of our overall environment... but it seems ridiculous to destroy that much land for so little return...
 
tomfrompv said:
I was also a fanatic long before it was cool.
Click to expand...

I hate the fanbois and their zealotry, and am a harsh critic of Apple's. That said, I too earned my plank rights before the hipster scum made it a bandwagon. We bought a Macintosh in '86 for what would now get you a fully decked out rMBP and leave plenty of spending money left over to buy accessories.
 
When iCloud comes more of a standard can see this becoming quite the target...
 
This is exactly what I though when I saw those pictures. Everybody pushes solar as super green, when in fact there's a big trade off. Clearly there isn't a perfect answer, but clearly clear cutting trees and covering everything in glass and metal panels made with toxic chemicals (petroleum based in some cases) seems less than green.


soupcxan said:
Solar panels,

made in China,

by forced labor / child labor,

using toxic chemicals,

placed on a clearcut forest.

How exactly is this "green"?
Click to expand...
 
Liquorpuki said:
what's the alternative?
Click to expand...

Nuclear, natural gas, wind turbine, hydro, etc... I think solar panels are great, I will likely install them on my house within the next few years, but they are very expensive relative to other energy sources, even other "green" ones.
 
tomfrompv said:
it would be awful if cash-flush Apple was one more pig at the public trough.
Click to expand...

Most of Apple's cash is sitting overseas while they wait for tax legislation changes that would allow them to bring it back to the U.S. It can't be used in the U.S. either so on one hand, Apple has huge stockpiles of cash (and related equities) but most of it cannot be used by Apple right now.
 
Kind of weird to look at, knowing all of my personal data is on a hard drive (or multiple drives) in that building.
 
Well.. So much for being green.. But look at the bright side guys.

More data center will bring down the premium cost of expanding iCloud storage.

(Who knows) we may be getting an upgrade of additional storage. 5GB is just... Urgh...
 
bmturney said:
ripping out 100 acres of trees and farm land for a 20 measly megawatts... Not a very efficient use of natural land resource.. I mean... I applaud the whole green thing... We should all be better stewards of our overall environment... But it seems ridiculous to destroy that much land for so little return...
Click to expand...

shut the **** up!
 
J.acks said:
More data center will bring down the premium cost of expanding iCloud storage.
Click to expand...

How does spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expanding storage going to bring down the cost, especially when they're being powered by overly expensive sources?
 
soupcxan said:
Solar panels,

made in China,

by forced labor / child labor,

using toxic chemicals,

placed on a clearcut forest.

How exactly is this "green"?
Click to expand...

You forgot that any hail storm or hurricane will destroy it in less than 5 minutes.
 
mixel said:
Woah. That's a lot of solar panels!
Click to expand...

Is it just me or is solar power a huge waste of space?

I mean I know it's green and etc etc but isn't there another way to generate as much power with a much smaller footprint (nuclear, wind, etc)?

And I know you can install panels on the rooftops but clearly that wouldn't be enough, it would only be supplementary.
 
shortenjam88 said:
Is it just me or is solar power a huge waste of space?

I mean I know it's green and etc etc but isn't there another way to generate as much power with a much smaller footprint (nuclear, wind, etc)?

And I know you can install panels on the rooftops but clearly that wouldn't be enough, it would only be supplementary.
Click to expand...

Nuclear could possibly. Wind takes up same space as solar but it kills birds.
 
shortenjam88 said:
Is it just me or is solar power a huge waste of space?

I mean I know it's green and etc etc but isn't there another way to generate as much power with a much smaller footprint (nuclear, wind, etc)?

And I know you can install panels on the rooftops but clearly that wouldn't be enough, it would only be supplementary.
Click to expand...

That is all nice and dandy until you see the trade-offs. Nuclear, ask the Ukrainians or Japanese about side effects (not to mention we still don't know where to put the waste securely for the next 100.000 year). About wind, you gotta get the facts: It is loud (not a problem there), only works when the wind blows (a problem basically everywhere) and is spills lubricants which in return soil the groud water and plants around it.
I understand that the trees are important but other than burning them in a way to get energy, there is not much you can do with them to harvest power. Best thing is to plant trees in their stead somewhere else (i.e. purchase farm land and plant trees).
We all are using the internet and the new cloud services one or another way. That all comes to a cost. I am sure that there are a lot of smart people thinking about how to shrink our carbon footprint. We still have to stay realistic though.
 
JHankwitz said:
How does spending hundreds of millions of dollars on expanding storage going to bring down the cost, especially when they're being powered by overly expensive sources?
Click to expand...

Urgh... Well.. When Google expand their data centre, they upgrade Google Doc from 1 GB to 5Gb. By using such theory, it's a plausible scenario. :D:D:D
 
shortenjam88 said:
Is it just me or is solar power a huge waste of space?

And I know you can install panels on the rooftops but clearly that wouldn't be enough, it would only be supplementary.
Click to expand...

No where near enough. Note that they don't tell anyone what percentage of the power needs are going to be covered by solar panels on a sunny day. And then, they're lucky to get 10% usage due to clouds, sun location, and daytime hours. If people knew how poorly they perform, maintenance costs, and return on investment, they'd be shocked.
 
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