Apple Building Mammoth Solar Array in North Carolina, but State’s Electricity Among ‘Dirtiest’ in Country

Apple just released its annual environmental update, which whether you view it skeptically or not, comes with an intriguing surprise: The company says it’s planning to build a massive 100-acre solar array to power a new data center in North Carolina.

In its

Boasts Cupertino: “The facility is exceptionally energy efficient and has earned the coveted LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. We know of no other data center of comparable size that has achieved this level of LEED certification.”

The LEED rating — the name stands for

Apple’s Maiden center will itself include its own battery of environmental conservation measures, including outside-air cooling mechanics, higher voltage power (to increase efficiency by reducing power loss), LED lighting with motion sensors, a “construction process” sourced from recycled and local materials and a “white cool-roof design to provide maximum solar reflectivity.”

And that’s just what’s inside the building. Cupertino says it’ll power much of the facility with what it describes as “the nation’s largest end user-owned, onsite solar array,” built on land surrounding the data center. We’re talking 100-acres, 20-megawatts big. Apple says it’ll supply the Maiden facility with 42 million kWh of “clean, renewable energy” each year.

Furthermore, Apple says it’s building a 5-megawatt fuel cell installation beside the Maiden data center that’ll go online later this year, making it the “largest non-utility fuel cell installation operating anywhere in the country.” It’ll power the installation using “100 percent biogas,” allowing it to provide “more than 40 million kWh of constant renewable energy each year.”

The Maiden data center is Apple’s latest attempt to improve its lackluster environmental image. Just last year, Greenpeace placed Cupertino at the bottom of a list, calling it the “least green” tech company because of Apple’s allegedly “dirty” data centers. 

Greenpeace says the U.S. harbors about 40% of the world’s data center servers, and that it’s estimated these farms guzzle nearly 3% of the nation’s power. Noting Apple’s Maiden data center cost $1 billion to build, Greenpeace says it could use up to 100MW of power, or about as much as you’d need to power some 80,000 U.S. homes.

Despite Apple’s “coveted” LEED award, then, the question seems to be whether a “green” facility that still consumes incredible amounts of allegedly “dirty electricity” is, in the end, providing a net benefit.