By this time next year, Apple will be powering its massive US data centers from 100% renewable sources including solar energy, wind power, and hydroelectric dams.
For more than a year, Greenpeace has been taking steps, often controversial, urging Apple to clean up its power act. The company has already taken to cleaning up their 500,000-square foot Maiden, North Carolina facility, which is on the Duke Energy grid, partially powered by coal. Apple has started building a 100-acre biogas energy plant and solar array on the site, but will still use Duke for some of the power. By the end of 2012, the facility will use only local providers who use renewable energy.
Greenpeace is happy with the announcement by Apple, but won’t be stopping the campaign against the company any time soon. “Apple’s announcement today is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal,†said a spokesperson.
Greenpeace really just wants Apple, as well as other companies, to make a pact to prioritize renewable energy, especially as new data centers are built.
The Apple data center in Newark, California will also be completely renewable by February 2013. Another data center located in Prineville, Oregon, will use hydro, wind, and geothermal energy once its online. There are also data centers in Sacramento, California and Austin, Texas that will be plugged into renewable energy.
Do you think these moves on Apple’s part will encourage other tech companies to follow suit?
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