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

[vampyr]

I do believe that even Apple is afraid of the impending Zombie Apocalypse that will wipe out our current power infrastructure.

The good news? Those users who had not yet been infected will still be able to use their iCloud accounts.

 

[faroZ06]

My Mac Mini Server is jealous.

----------

Solar panels,

made in China,

by forced labor / child labor,

using toxic chemicals,

placed on a clearcut forest.

How exactly is this "green"?

How is forced labor by children in China bad for the environment again? Assuming that's what happened.

----------

what's the alternative?

Nuclear power.

 

[mjtomlin]

what's the alternative?

Can't we send all those abused Chinese kids to the moon and have them mine Helium 3 instead?

 

[Liquorpuki]

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.

That's a false dilemma. The problem isn't should we tear up 100 acres or not tear up 100 acres. It's what's the greenest way to power up the data center.

100 acres getting left alone is pointless if 200 acres elsewhere get destroyed via chemical fracking and 50 years later they have to tear up another 200 acres because the original 200 acres is now depleted.

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.

Yeah but since Apple isn't a utility, they're not gonna build any of those. And wind is pretty expensive too and tears up more of the environment because of all the service roads.

 

[the8thark]

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.

We bought a Macintosh in '86
So your old.

for what would now get you a fully decked out rMBP and leave plenty of spending money left over to buy accessories
So you were rich.

Your point being?

 

[illpod]

Pictures of this place are very cool and you cant knock the use of renewable energy. Yeah, Greenpeace are probably pissed but aren't they always.

Also if the tactical center is the source of all siri's powers i hope they are going to put a big red eye glowing eye on front of it when it is completed.

 

[Jiten]

Solar panels,

made in China,

by forced labor / child labor,

using toxic chemicals,

placed on a clearcut forest.

How exactly is this "green"?

Sadly China now considered the best source and manufacturer of solar panels. Thank our policy makers for not putting enough research on alternative energy.

 

[rmwebs]

Watch Samsung have one of these in 6 months.

Very mature

You'll probably find they already have a bunch. Just like Google, Microsoft and other large companies they probably wouldn't (stupidly) make a public announcement that they have millions of dollars of computers in a relatively unguarded building in the middle of nowhere.

Generally you wont see people advertise where their datacenters are.

 

[nunes013]

How come we never see Microsoft and Google's Data Centers?

google actually has a page dedicated to all its data centers. in terms of investment cost i think apples is the largest compared to any of googles. google does have 11 where apple will have 4 major ones in the next 2 years or so (California, North Carolina, Nevada, Oregon).

http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/index.html

 

[denaliOnDubs]

Haha they most likely will "S-Cloud coming soon!"

Watch Samsung have one of these in 6 months.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

No, they're pissed about all the trees that were taken down to build the solar farm...

That was farm land before hand. Not trees.

 

[cage123au]

You have to wonder when looking at that tactical centre, that is one hell of a lot of cooling for a very small building. I would guess a LOT is going on underneath that building and I wonder what. If not, that is going to be one huge freezer with that much cooling power.

 

[AidenShaw]

Sure about that?

That was farm land before hand. Not trees.

This news item seems to disagree:

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/10/26/apple-planning-solar-array-near-idatacenter/

Apple is in the early stages of installing an array of solar panels on a large parcel of land it is clearing for its new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, according to documents filed with officials in Catawba County. The company is in the process of clearing trees from 171 acres of land across from its 500,000 square foot iDataCenter.

While a solar power generation facility could make Apple’s data center slightly greener, local residents are complaining about smoke in the area from fires to burn off cleared trees and debris on the Apple property, according to local media.

Compare the attached picture from 2 April 2011 to today's image - looks like a lot of trees went missing.

Today:

(click to enlarge)​

 

[ConCat]

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?

Things are cheaper in bulk. Sure, it's a lot of power, but it would be a lot more for all of those little server rooms that that giant data center displaces. It's price per gigabyte you have to look at.

 

[Magaman]

 

[Doggonit]

We bought a Macintosh in '86
So your old.

for what would now get you a fully decked out rMBP and leave plenty of spending money left over to buy accessories
So you were rich.

Your point being?

Uh. How do you arrive at me being old or rich? You assume, which as we known, makes an ass out of you and me.

 

[ridesdeepsnow]

rooftop solar area?

Does anyone have an idea why no solar panels are installed on the rooftop of the largest building.

Seems a waste for all that flat space nobody really has to access.

Solar panels are not a huge weight factor so I am sure integrity of the building shouldn't have been a factor?

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That was farm land before hand. Not trees.

A small portion of the land may have been farmland.

Unless they were farming 100 year old trees

 

[Trekorvar]

Is that all? I doubt Apples map service will work on a global scale.

 

[ridesdeepsnow]

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.

Nuclear, that's great to say and all but wait until a 150 meter tall coolant tower is in your field of view for the rest of your life and the risk of nuclear leakage. I grew up near Pottstown, PA which is 10 miles away from Limerick, PA home of the Nuclear power plant and everyone hates it. 3 mile island is an hour away and everyone HATES it, guess why?

Natural gas is a decent thought, but again another fuel you depend upon from a corporate giant to provide to you.

Wind turbine, yeah again, nice to bring up but you either have a small one for your house or you see giant 200' tall ones dotting the landscape.

Hydro, until someone invents a mass-scale Ocean hydro engine system, I do not think plugging up rivers is a good way to go. If you know anything about the Colorado river system and the impact of the Hoover dam you wouldn't want rivers to be plugged up either if you had any sense of being a human being.

The sun is always shining, the sun is free to everyone. The energy corporations hate solar because they will lose their monopoly grip on society when it truly becomes a real option for people.
But what you consider expensive, others may not. I know for sure solar panel installation is almost an automatic sure way of getting a home loan because it is a LONG TERM investment into your home and the bank knows you will have one less bill to be a slave to, and the selling point of your house just became much more better looking.
I forget the math formula but pretty much the amount of energy the sun unleashes onto planet earth in 1.0 second is the amount of energy the United States uses all year.
Solar panels are getting cheaper, they have solar panels that even look like roof shingles unless you get like 5 feet from them and closer inspection.

When the PEOPLE are energy independant thats when the economy will truly EXPLODE for the better.
Think of the amount of money spent just by americans to Energy utilities each year. It is estimated that the U.S. will spend 23 trillion of fossil fuels between 2010 and 2030.
So for all those muscle heads driving around in Hummers and huge Diesel powered pickup trucks who laugh at the people driving hybrids saying Honda and Toyota aren't AMERICAN, just let them know how much money we are THROWING away to other nations when we could be circulating that money with-in our own country.
Yeah thats a bit more than 1 trillion we would be able to spend on our own country and invest in ourselves, education, homeless, veterans, infrastructure.

But back to the main point is that there are many state and federal tax incentives that at times can refund you as much as 80%-100% of the solar costs. Yes you spend the $ first, but let's say you get a refi-loan, yes you will have to pay interest on the payments for the rest of the year until your taxes are finished for that year, but honestly for even $30,000 solar panel installation the interest for $30k for a full 12 months is something like $1500 at ridiculous rates.
So you pay $1500 out of your pocket, plus whatever the tax rebates do not cover of the total bill.
$1500 is a small payment i am sure of what your home energy costs for strictly energy usage in your home I am sure.
Try to get it done now because I am sure when the hammer falls, which it will soon, the wave of solar installation will surge over the amount of installers licensed to do that particular specialized work and yes it is specialized.
I know many 15-20 year electrical contractors who have no idea about solar and do not want to get new certifications to do this type of work because electrical workers are some of the most needed trades in the world.

And when the flood happens MANY people will be on the sidelines for YEARS waiting to have these installed

 

[macs4nw]

Nope. They will now complain about the number of trees Apple removed in order to put in the solar panels.

Can't please some people EVER!!

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.

Precisely. If you consider all the aforementioned angles as well as ocean current turbine technology, Solar looks pretty good. And although it may not be the highest yield option, it is the lowest-maintenance option and arguably the least onerous one.

 

[sireShonBohn]

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...

Do you know what a Megawatt is?

 

[Comeagain?]

Does anyone know the details here? Mostly, are taxpayers funding part or all of the solar arrays? Sorry to be so cynical, but given the state of our deficit and recent history of our govt, it would be awful if cash-flush Apple was one more pig at the public trough.

Yep, I'm new to the comments but a long time reader. I was also a fanatic long before it was cool. First Mac was a Lisa, if that tells you anything.

BTW, clouds and solar arrays don't mix.

What? Why would tax payers pay for any of this?

 

[ridesdeepsnow]

Do you know what a Megawatt is?

Good question, but you know the posted obviously does not when he uses the word "measly"

Your questioning will only lead to more ignorant answers........

 

[Mr. Gates]

Just think how much pot you could grow in a secluded area like that

Middle of nowhere...... A CEO could get away with murder out there

 

[ridesdeepsnow]

Just think how much pot you could grow in a secluded area like that


Image


Middle of nowhere...... A CEO could get away with murder out there

Ahhh the hippy comes out to only show why generalizations aren;t always wrong.
Maybe because things like Helicopters and planes would find that in a second. Not very secluded and it's the east coast, pretty much Police states out there.

Why make drug references that are't even funny on Macrumors? how stoned are you? Go hit the pipe some more and keep doing so much with your life