Apple said it will invest in constructing two onshore wind turbines near Esbjerg in Denmark to support its data centre in Viborg, with all surplus energy going into the Danish grid. The 200-meter turbines are expected to produce 62 gigawatt hours each year, or enough to power almost 20,000 homes. The two constructions will act as a test site for offshore wind turbines.
In July, Apple announced plans to become carbon-neutral throughout its business, manufacturing supply chain and product life cycle by 2030. The Esbjerg wind project follows the recent completion of a solar array in Thisted, which was the first Danish solar project built without public subsidies. Both projects have been developed in conjunction with Danish firm European Energy.
Apple’s data centre in Viborg has a 45,000 square meter floor space and is now operational. It helps to run the App Store, Apple Music, iMessage, Siri and other services in Europe that are run entirely on renewable energy from local projects.
The Viborg data centre had over 600 specialist workers on site each day during construction and included many Danish businesses supporting its development. It is now run by data specialists, technicians, maintenance and security staff, many of whom were recruited from the local area.
Apple said Varta, its German battery supplier, has committed to running its Apple production with 100 percent renewable power. Other European suppliers are working toward clean energy methods for their Apple productions, too, including Henkel, Tesa SE, DSM Engineering Materials, STMicroelectronics and Solvay. Their clean energy commitments include DSM’s wind power purchase agreement in the Netherlands and STMicroelectronics' solar carport in Morocco.
Apple launched its Supplier Clean Energy Programme in October 2015. Since then, 72 manufacturing partners in seventeen countries have committed to 100 percent renewable energy for Apple production. These commitments will avoid over 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, or the equivalent of taking more than 3 million cars off the road each year.
Apple's data centre in Viborg has a 45,000 square meter floor space and is now operational. It helps to run the App Store, Apple Music, iMessage, Siri and other services in Europe that are run entirely on renewable energy from local projects.
The Viborg data centre had over 600 specialist workers on site each day during construction and included many Danish businesses supporting its development. It is now run by data specialists, technicians, maintenance and security staff, many of whom were recruited from the local area.
