Apple on Monday announced its plans to invest €1.7 billion to set up two green data centers in Ireland and Denmark to support its online services in Europe.
The facilities will be located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland.
Apple will utilize the 100 percent green power to fuel its online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.
The size of the two data centers will be 166,000 square metres each. Both facilities are expected to begin operations in 2017. These facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data centre.
“This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
Apple will run the new facilities entirely on renewable energy sources from day one. Apple will work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future.
For the data center project in Athenry, Ireland, Apple will recover land previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees and restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest. The project will also provide an outdoor education space for local schools, as well as a walking trail for the community.
In Viborg, Denmark, Apple will eliminate the need for additional generators by locating the data centre adjacent to one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations. The facility is designed to capture excess heat from equipment inside the facility and conduct it into the district heating system to help warm homes in the neighboring community.
