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Apple Building Solar Farm at North Carolina Data Center
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LOL, what a waste. Solar & Wind power produce a mouse's fart worth of electricity.
Apple with its billion$ could build its own mini nuclear reactor and be independent.
Apple with its billion$ could build its own mini nuclear reactor and be independent.
He wasn't directly arguing that warming wasn't occurring. Rather, he was arguing that, even if there is warming, there wasn't adequate proof that the warming was man-made.
Like duh! The wind dies down at night too. Wind is an extremely expensive way to produce power.
How is it inefficient. A distributed solar grid around the world, with fully connected nanowire cabling would give us all the power we needed 24/7.
To meet current energy demands for the ENTIRE WORLD, we would need the total area of solar panels to equal the area of Colarado and New mexico combined.
THAT IS ALL.
So, it really can be done.
And for those of you who argue that the sun goes away at night ... did you know power could be stored? Its called batteries, people.
If that area was distributed around the world, and if we had the right nano wires to transmit that power without a huge loss of energy, we could effective power our planet. The best part? solar energy doesn't put out any emissions, or radioactive waste.
Also, people have developed much more effective solar panels, including 3D cells (pretty thick ones) that capture a broader range of wavelengths, making them more efficient.
Solar power has a lot to offer to us, and I really like how Apple is thinking ahead with this one.
The only way they'll save money is through tax credits, meaning someone else will be making up for the taxes they don't pay.
BTW, coal is not a limited resource. The US has enough coal to provide all the power we could possibly use for at least the next 400 years.
Just found this on the Register:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/26/waste_heat_into_power/
I'm no expert in electrical engineering or anything like that, but hopefully this could be harnessed. Unfortunately, sounds like it's still a few years off.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/26/waste_heat_into_power/
I'm no expert in electrical engineering or anything like that, but hopefully this could be harnessed. Unfortunately, sounds like it's still a few years off.
Well guess what. These guys have been completely vindicated. No serious person is making any accusations of fraud anymore. Not saying nobody is making any such accusations, but anyone who is _still_ spreading that BS cannot be taken serious.
The whole place was farmland. It would have been greener to rehabilitate some old industrial park rather than to do a suburban spread sort of thing.
I feel the same way about the new glass donut. Lots of blighted industrial areas begging to be reborn.
But what is there at the moment? They call it "vacant land", but there is no such thing as vacant land. From pictures I have seen, there are at least trees there and they are now burning them down as we speak. Not very eco-friendly.
Clearly not an Apple specific issue, but still, I'm wondering why they don't put it on the roof of the building.
Solar is not "free energy" by any means. Equipment, construction, and maintenance costs are sky-high. Solar is extremely expensive to maintain on a roof-top. And, you constantly put out CO2 in the atmosphere. Perhaps it's time to start getting rid af all of the real CO2 emitters.
Great to see!
its about time. America are lagging miles behind Europe and other continents in owning up to their responsibilities to this planet which they share with the rest of us! Afterall, America is the most inefficient of all when it comes to consumption and also to pollution.
To see the narrow minded view of people in this page simply dismissing solar energy is disgusting. Bearing in mind that you are on a fan page of one of the most technologically progressive companies in the world here, solar technology also moves on and is more efficient than ever before. Apple are greener than most companies and why do people have a problem with them striving to better that in a manner that benefits everyone!
Really, America needs to waken up to their responsibilities. Covering 1% of the desert space in New Mexico with solar farms is enough to power the entire country. Its a HUGE clean, natural resource that we need to exploit and the rest of the world is looking to our number 1 economy (for now at least) to lead the way so fair play to the worlds number 2 company for taking that step!
its about time. America are lagging miles behind Europe and other continents in owning up to their responsibilities to this planet which they share with the rest of us! Afterall, America is the most inefficient of all when it comes to consumption and also to pollution.
To see the narrow minded view of people in this page simply dismissing solar energy is disgusting. Bearing in mind that you are on a fan page of one of the most technologically progressive companies in the world here, solar technology also moves on and is more efficient than ever before. Apple are greener than most companies and why do people have a problem with them striving to better that in a manner that benefits everyone!
Really, America needs to waken up to their responsibilities. Covering 1% of the desert space in New Mexico with solar farms is enough to power the entire country. Its a HUGE clean, natural resource that we need to exploit and the rest of the world is looking to our number 1 economy (for now at least) to lead the way so fair play to the worlds number 2 company for taking that step!
The green thing to do would be to shut down the data centre, stop buying computers, turn off the A/C and walk to work.
We can go back to the stone age or make greener energy. No energy is green, but some sources are more green than others.
If you feel this way about the solar farm, maybe you should stop using macs and other electronic/technology.
As such a large power consumer, they can probably negotiate a pretty favorable "off peak" rate for night. The highest demand for electricity occurs in the day when most businesses are operating and the temperature is hot so air conditioning demands are high. This is precisely when Apple would produce the most electricity from a solar farm. In fact, the power company might even give them incentives to produce some of their power during peak load.
Those costs exist with normal electricity as well you know, maintenance and set up of the grid and the power stations. These are just as high but they are factored into your unit cost. Solar has a bigger capital outlay for private ventures but over time, the unit cost is much lower particularly as the technology advances and the uptake increases. Also, most forward thinking countries offer grants and allows even householders to produce & sell surplus energy into the grid so it actually can make you a lot of money! Sorry if I am wrong, but USA just arent there yet...maybe adapting KYOTO would have done something on that
Yes, in the long run the sacrifice for the 170 acres vs. the output of a coal burning power makes it a much greener choice.
There is still the option of growing field grass in the solar farm, which would also help to replace what was cut down.
Of course Apple should've just hired the Keebler elves to build their new data center in the tree houses, would that make you happy or would you whine about the stress that puts n the trees?
Actually, economically speaking, you can't.
It is very very expensive to store large amounts of energy. When we start talking about a real power hungry device (like a bunch of computers and the AC units to cool them) you get way beyond the ability to economically build batteries to store energy.
In your ordinary life, you might become familiar with this phenomena when you leave your car lights on overnight. That is a fully charged $150 battery sitting in your car and all it is asked to do is run two lights and it can't do it overnight. Hook that battery up to a real energy drain like an AC unit and your battery will be done in an hour or two.
Apple cannot build large enough batteries to run something as huge as its server farm. Maybe physically it could do that, but I suspect the cost of building enough batteries on hand to run through the night would cost in the order of billions of dollars. And that wouldn't even take into account that you would have to charge those batteries each day to have them charged for the night.
Deforestation is cool again... as long as you're replacing the vegetation with solar panels.
I wonder how long it will be before Brazil figures this out.
I wonder how long it will be before Brazil figures this out.
Actually, since those emails got out, many respectalbe credible scientific institutions re-examined all of that research and concluded that there was no reason to discredit their science. The whole "Climategate"-scandal was nothing more than biased interests making a populist spin off of some people's unfortunate phrasings.
You sound almost as self-deluded as that other guy who denies that global warming has been strongly been influenced by humans, the only difference is that you don't watch Faux News. You might as well keep your tin-foil hat on because the lizard people are trying to read your thoughts.
You're right, I won't read your references as I don't succumb to bad science. Even with a scientific consensus that agrees that the climate has gotten warmer because of human intervention, you will still find a crank or two that denies it. The same goes for any "controversial" scientific issue that followers of a book written by a bunch of dead guys with beards blindly follow.
As for the issue being a political issue, it's only a political issue that conservatives took to appease their evangelical base.