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Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

macrumors.com

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Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#41

Post by anonfunction »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #36
anonfunction wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"... we arrive at 496,804,500,000 square meters or 496,805 square kilometers (191,817 square miles) as the area required to power the world with solar panels. This is roughly equal to the area of Spain."

As was pointed out, that's the whole world, not the United States. And the Sahara Desert is 3.629 million square miles. Sounds like that would be a great place to site 200,000 square miles of solar panels. Of course, this would be infeasible for any number of reasons ranging from geopolitics to superconductors, which is why it's a thought experiment.

The most obvious problem being that transmitting the power from North Africa, to say Hawaii would pose a significant challenge.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#42

Post by rfurlong »

yalogin wrote: post #28
salem wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that this is green washing, and the bulk of their manufacturing operations is excluded from this "100%" figure.

I don't understand. The article clearly says the data center is using renewable energy right? You say it like its a bad thing. Every one knows the manufacturing side is what it is. Where is the intent to fool anyone here? Please point me to it.

In the linked article Apple also states that the entire company runs on 75% renewable energy. This is the figure I am criticizing.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#43

Post by nilsbunger »

rfurlong wrote: post #4

This is great, but I bet apple's suppliers and manufacturers aren't anywhere close to this level of renewable energy.

Data centers are one of the fastest growing power consumers, something like 1.5-2% of all power today (eg http://www.analyticspress.com/datacenters.html). We should all be excited that Facebook, Google, Apple et al are seriously working on reducing that impact.

Clearly there's a lot more to be done (manufacturing, transportation, etc), but I don't think that undermines the progress being made in datacenters.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#44

Post by nilsbunger »

trotsky wrote: post #31

How does this square with their new campus that's slated to be ready in 2015 and be primarily powered by their own natural gas generating station? [1] Have the plans changed? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Campus#Apple_Campus_2

Well, this article is about data centers, not their work campus. But it would be interesting to know if they will eliminate fossil fuels from their campuses too.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#45

Post by octix »

niggler wrote: post #30
octix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's Apple's style...

To be fair, their products are really improving in the area of energy efficiency EDIT: If you are going to downvote, at least point to proof that it isn't happening

I'm not sure what to say, my comment was on Apple's marketing and not the actual products, I don't think it's even related... It just reminded me the case with Macs made in USA, but it was more PR than actual fact...

PS: I'm not downvoting...

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#46

Post by aaronbrethorst »

anonfunction wrote: post #41
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As was pointed out, that's the whole world, not the United States. And the Sahara Desert is 3.629 million square miles. Sounds like that would be a great place to site 200,000 square miles of solar panels. Of course, this would be infeasible for any number of reasons ranging from geopolitics to superconductors, which is why it's a thought experiment.

The most obvious problem being that transmitting the power from North Africa, to say Hawaii would pose a significant challenge.

Like I said, superconductors.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#47

Post by adventured »

smackfu wrote: post #5

More info: http://www.apple.com/environment/renewable-energy/ It seems like the North Carolina one is home-grown solar, the Oregon one is hydroelectric (as are most datacenters in Oregon), and the California one is (purchased) wind power.

Their North Carolina datacenter isn't getting even a tiny fraction of its power from solar. So I'm not sure what they're calling renewable energy. It's basically a flat out lie.

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#48

Post by yalogin »

rfurlong wrote: post #42
yalogin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand. The article clearly says the data center is using renewable energy right? You say it like its a bad thing. Every one knows the manufacturing side is what it is. Where is the intent to fool anyone here? Please point me to it.

In the linked article Apple also states that the entire company runs on 75% renewable energy. This is the figure I am criticizing.

Even there they only say corporate facilities and nothing about manufacturing (which is done by outside companies). Do you think they are lying about their corporate facilities using 75% renewable energy? If so can you please point me to any article contradicting that?

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#49

Post by Xuzz »

adventured wrote: post #47
smackfu wrote: post #5

More info: http://www.apple.com/environment/renewable-energy/ It seems like the North Carolina one is home-grown solar, the Oregon one is hydroelectric (as are most datacenters in Oregon), and the California one is (purchased) wind power.

Their North Carolina datacenter isn't getting even a tiny fraction of its power from solar. So I'm not sure what they're calling renewable energy. It's basically a flat out lie.

How do you know that more about this than Apple does? I don't see any reason to believe they're lying, from what you said?

Re: Apple's Data Centers Now Running on 100% Renewable Energy

#50

Post by barney54 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #32
barney54 wrote: post #9

This is some pretty deceptive marketing. Apple's data centers still run on coal in places like North Carolina because that's is what is producing the electricity on the grid. Their renewable projects produce a decent amount of electricity, but one of the most critical issues of the electrical grid is stability and solar, even with the fuel cells does not provide enough electricity on cloudy days or over night. Solar,…

Simultaneously correct and incorrect :-) A number of great studies have shown the futility of depending on transient energy renewables (solar, wind, tides) for all generation, and yet the ability to cover peak loads does directly reduce the required amount of non-renewable fuel. If you're renewables generate the same amount of energy during their 'active' hours, that you consume in total, you have effectively arbitra…

Solar and wind do not necessary help cover peak loads--because they are not reliable. Instead, much of the peak load will be covered by peaking plants (which are generally natural gas).

For example, here's the current load data for the California grid operator: http://www.caiso.com/Pages/TodaysOutlook.aspx#Renewables Note that today's peak electricity production will come at 9pm--far after solar is helpful.

Solar and wind also don't help keep the lights on in the middle of the night--that's the role of baseload plants like coal and nuclear.

According to the Energy Information Administration as of December 2012, 40 percent of NC's electricity came from coal and 39 percent from nuclear. http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=NC#tabs-4

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