Apple is building a new data center in Denmark, and it has some innovative ideas on how to power the data center with renewable energy, while also giving back to the community.
The excess heat generated by the data center will be captured and returned to the local district’s heating system, which will warm up homes in the community. Its data center in the Jutland region (Northern Europe) will be partly powered by recycling waste products from farms. Apple is also working with Aarhus University on a system that passes agricultural waste through a digester to generate methane, which is then used to power the data center.
The digester turns some of the waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer, which Apple will return to local farmers to use on their fields. It’s a “mutually beneficial relationship,” Apple said in its environment report for 2016, released this week.
The new data center in Denmark will be fully powered by renewable energy and won’t put stress on the local grid, Apple said. All of Apple’s data centers are operated on renewable energy, and that’s a goal Apple is chasing for all its facilities. Apple is also building a data center in Athenry, Ireland, that will be powered by energy generated by ocean waves. The iPhone maker is supporting the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to develop the new source of energy, the company said.
Apple is making a major push to be one of the greenest companies on the planet. Its new corporate headquarters in Cupertino, called Apple Park, will run on renewable energy. The company has cut its use of toxic materials and is also using more recycled materials in its products and packaging.
Apple’s commitment to renewable energy has been applauded by activist organization Greenpeace, which also urged Samsung, Huawei, and Microsoft to follow suit.
The company has five data centers in the US, which are all powered by renewable energy. The two new data centers, which will cost about $1.8 billion, in Europe are expected to come online this year. Data centers are among the most power-hungry tech facilities, and electricity requirements go up as computing moves into the cloud. As servers are saddled with more tasks, the processing requirements go up. As a result, more heat is generated, and Apple has found an innovative way to recycle heat.
Many data centers find ways to recycle heat, while others let the resource go waste. Amazon recycles heat to warm up offices nearby, and other companies recycle the heat to generate hot water.
Iceland and the Scandinavian countries are hotspots to establish data centers because of naturally cool weather and easy availability of hydropower
