Apple plans to use renewable energy to power its main U.S. data center by the end of this year. That’s according to Reuters.
The company says it is buying equipment from SunPower Corp. and Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina. Maiden is close to Apple’s core data center.
The solar farm will supply 84 million kWh of energy annually, Reuters says.
The two solar farms will cover 250 acres. Apple plans to use coal-free electricity in its data centers. The Maiden facility will be coal-free by the end of 2012.
Concerns about power consumption at data centers have increased in recent years as companies build facilities housing servers to cater to mounting Internet and device use, Reuters says.
What’s more, prices for solar panels have been dropping, which, in turn, has narrowed the gap with the cost of fossil fuel power. According to Reuters, that may encourage some corporations to switch.
To read the full Reuters article cited in this story, click here