Apple's Second European Data Center Prepares for 2017 Opening in Foulum, Denmark

[MacRumors]

Earlier in the year, Apple announced that it would be spending $2 billion on two new data centers in Europe, with one located in Ireland and another in Denmark. New information has emerged today regarding the second data center in Denmark, which will be located in Foulum (via The Copenhagen Post).

Foulum is a small town outside of Viborg -- a larger a city in central Jutland, Denmark -- where the agricultural research facilities of Aarhus University are located. This will be helpful for Apple, since the company also recently announced a partnership with the Aarhus University on a new biogas research and development project.

The research will look into how to convert biogas into electricity through the use of fuel cells, and the help of various agricultural waste materials provided by local farmers.

Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said the new collaboration is "an excellent follow-on to Apple's billion investment in the data centre".

"The new partnership is a good example that [ministry investment organization] Invest in Denmark's targeted efforts to attract data centre investments to Denmark is producing excellent results. It also illustrates that data centre investors often wish to contribute to research into and the expansion of the renewable energy capacity in Denmark to the benefit of everyone," Jensen said in a statement.

At 6.3 billion kroner, the 166,000-square-meter data center is the "largest foreign capital investment in Danish history." Similar to the Irish data center, the one in Denmark will help power Apple's online services in Europe, including the iTunes Store, App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, and more. The current projections for the project prepare it for an operational launch date sometime in 2017, and construction is expected to continue through 2026.

Throughout 2016, Apple had a rough time preparing its data center in Ireland, facing multiple objections to the facility's potential harmful ramifications for the nearby wilderness. In August, however, the Cupertino company finally got approval for its Galway County, Ireland data center. Apple's plan was to originally have the Irish data center up and running by early 2017, but since its first proposal in September 2015 and the ensuing blockades, it's expected that goal has been pushed further back.

Article Link: Apple's Second European Data Center Prepares for 2017 Opening in Foulum, Denmark

 

[Goatllama]

Great stuff! Exciting to think of the day where they can just use their own personal data centers in the US.

 

[SpiderDude]

Mr. Robot'ing intensifies!

 

[now i see it]

emojis need a place to live too

 

[coolfactor]

"Viborg" — Star Trek predicts the future...

A — Apple
B — Borg
C — Collective

 

[BigHonkingDeal]

I'm having a Kroner comprehension problem

 

[SBlue1]

They should build them more to the north where it's colder so they don't need so much power to cool them and the power available is mostly green. Like Norway, Sweden or Finland. All are very technology open minded countries with lots of great skilled young tech workers. Or even better Greenland or Iceland. Those are further away though.

 

[Fzang]

Perhaps it's part of Apple's plan to curb the wrath of tax hungry Danish EU politician Magrethe Vestager?

Billions spent, trillions saved.

 

[york2600]

They should build them more to the north where it's colder so they don't need so much power to cool them and the power available is mostly green. Like Norway, Sweden or Finland. All are very technology open minded countries with lots of great skilled young tech workers. Or even better Greenland or Iceland. Those are further away though.

Network connectivity is better in Denmark which gives the overall European market lower latency connectivity into their services. There's just not a lot of network peering in Norway/Sweden/Finland.

 

[macs4nw]

I'm having a Kroner comprehension problem

Can't wait for Seinfeld to finally come to Bluray; still showing TBA.

On topic, these overseas Data centres make a lot of sense for the purpose of:
a) Spending overseas earned profits, overseas.
b) Spreading the risk of disruptions of service due to natural disasters, civil unrest or worse events.
c) Spare capacity for future growth, or back-up capacity for off-line Date centres elsewhere.

 

[Banan911]

Today came the news that Apple is building a second datacenter in Denmark. It's going to be build outside the city of Aabenraa and are set to open I 2019. Here are some information from DR News.

Apple expands its activities in Denmark and will build a new data center just outside Aabenraa.
The US IT giant is already building another data center in Viborg, and the second two in Aabenraa may potentially be even bigger. At the outset, however, the two data centers will resemble each other in size, energy consumption and design.
The first phase of construction in Aabenraa is expected to be completed in 2019 at a total price of about six billion Danish Kroner. When it is in operation, the data center must run 100 percent renewable energy. The building is expected to create approximately 300 jobs and about 50-100 employees when the data center is in full operation.
In a written comment to Ritzau, Erik Stannow, Nordic Director of Apple says:
"We are excited to expand our data center operations in Denmark while investing in new sources of green energy. Like all our data centers, the planned center in Aabenraa will run on clean energy from the first day thanks to new energy projects that we create.

Should run iTunes and Siri
The two data centers in Denmark will run Apple's internet services like the music store iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Map and Siri for the company's European users.
There is no need for additional generators, as the center of Aabenraa will also be located at a transformer station.
The center must be located right next to Kassø high-voltage station, which guarantees high power supply.
The security of supply is one of the main reasons for Apple choosing to place two data centers in Denmark.
The Ministry of Climate and Energy confirms the information for DR News.​