CORRECTED-Apple makes renewable energy push with solar, fuel cells

Fri Mar 22, 2013 11:36am EDT

(Amends power measure in second paragrpah to kilowatt-hours, from kilowatts)

By Poornima Gupta



訂正：米アップルの主要データセンター、再生可能エネのみで稼働

2013年 03月 23日 01:59 JST

CORRECTED-Apple makes renewable energy push with solar, fuel cells

Fri Mar 22, 2013 11:36am EDT
(Amends power measure in second paragrpah to kilowatt-hours, from kilowatts)

By Poornima Gupta

(Reuters) - Apple Inc now runs its largest U.S. data center entirely on renewable energy, with a majority of the power generated on-site from solar panels and fuel cells, the company's chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, said on Thursday.

The data center in Maiden, North Carolina, which supports Internet storage and Apple's service-hosting iCloud product, produces 167 million kilowatt-hours - the power equivalent of 17,600 homes for one year - from a 100-acre solar farm and fuel cell installations provided by Silicon Valley startup Bloom Energy.

They are the largest, non-utility power-generating facilities of their kind in the United States, Oppenheimer told Reuters.

"We switched over to these new energy sources in December," he said. "And we are committed to generating 60 percent of the electricity that the data center will use by making power on site. We are now achieving that goal."

Apple purchases the rest of the green power needed at the facility.

Apple and other technology companies - such as Amazon and Microsoft - that build and run computer server farms have come under criticism for their high consumption of electricity and other resources. These data centers cater to an explosion in Internet traffic, streaming content through mobile devices and hosting of services to corporations.

Apple has switched many of its corporate facilities to fully operate on green power, including those in Austin, Texas; Cork, Ireland; and Sacramento, California, Oppenheimer said.

The company is building another 20-megawatt solar farm at its Maiden facility with solar panels supplied by SunPower Corp .

Overall, Apple said it has increased the proportion of renewable energy used throughout the company to 75 percent. Eventually, the company aims to use only renewable energy at all its facilities around the world. (Reporting By Poornima Gupta; Editing by Leslie Adler)



訂正：米アップルの主要データセンター、再生可能エネのみで稼働

2013年 03月 23日 01:59 JST

［サンフランシスコ　２１日　ロイター］　米アップル(AAPL.O: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)のピーター・オッペンハイマー最高財務責任者（ＣＦＯ）は２１日、ノースカロライナ州メイデンにある国内最大のデータセンターについて、再生可能エネルギーのみで稼働する体制に入ったことを明らかにした。

主な電力源は太陽光発電と燃料電池。

発電量は１万７６００世帯の年間使用量に相当する１億６７００万キロワット時（訂正）。シリコンバレーの新興企業ブルーム・エナジーから調達した燃料電池設備や太陽光発電設備で発電している。

この種の自家発電施設としては国内最大という。

データセンターで利用する電力の６０％を自家発電し、残りは外部からグリーン電力を調達する。

データセンターはインターネット・ストレージや同社の「ｉＣｌｏｕｄ」製品をサポートしている。

アップル、アマゾン(AMZN.O: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)、マイクロソフト(MSFT.O: 株価, 企業情報, レポート)など、データセンターを運営するハイテク企業に対しては、電力などの資源を大量に消費しているとの批判が出ている。

＊２１日付で配信した記事で英文の訂正により３段落目の「１億６７００万キロワット」を「１億６７００万キロワット時」に訂正します。



Apple and Environment - Environmental Progress

For more than 20 years, Apple has been working on ways to minimize the impact our company and our products have on the environment.

Achieving 100 percent renewable energy.

We’re currently on track toward achieving an ambitious goal: to power every Apple facility entirely with energy from renewable sources ― solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal. We’ve already reached this milestone at all of our data centers that provide online services to our customers, including in Maiden, North Carolina. We’ve also reached 100 percent at our facilities in Austin, Cork, and Munich and at our Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino.

For all of Apple’s corporate facilities worldwide, we’re at 75 percent renewable energy ― which represents a 114 percent increase since 2010. To get to 100 percent worldwide, we’re constructing new energy-efficient buildings and updating existing ones. We’re installing our own onsite renewable energy sources, including solar arrays and fuel cells. And for the balance of our energy needs, we’re establishing as many long-term contracts with energy suppliers as we are allowed. Learn more about Apple and renewable energy