Apple Environmental Responsibility Report

Appendix B
Data Center Energy Supplement
Apple’s data center presence continues to grow. Each data center
has unique design features that reflect the climate and other aspects
of its specific site. All of our data centers operate on 100 percent
renewable energy and power billions of iMessages, answers from Siri,
and song downloads from iTunes. That means no matter how much
data they handle, there is a zero greenhouse gas emissions impact
from their electricity use. These data centers use renewable energy
sources like solar, wind, biogas fuel cells, and micro-hydro power
from onsite and locally obtained resources.
Maiden, North Carolina
On any given day, between 60 and 100 percent of our Maiden data
center’s energy use is generated through 68 megawatts of Apple
projects: two 20-megawatt solar arrays, an 18-megawatt solar array,
and 10 megawatts of biogas fuel cells. In 2015, we took a new approach
to support further growth at our Maiden data center: We partnered with
the local utility, Duke Energy, to help build five solar PV projects through
Duke Energy’s Green Source Rider program. These solar PV projects,
which started coming online in late 2015 to support our Maiden data
center, were Duke Energy’s first Green Source Rider projects to become
operational. We worked with Duke Energy for several years to develop
this green energy tariff option, which allowed Apple and Duke Energy
to work together to develop new renewable energy projects. The five
projects have a combined peak capacity of 20 megawatts. All told,
Apple’s data center will be supported by projects that generate 244
million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy a year, which is equivalent
to the energy used by 17,906 North Carolina homes.*
Among Maiden’s energy efficiency features are the use of outside air
cooling through a waterside economizer during night and cool-weather
hours, which, along with water storage, allows the chillers to be turned
off more than 75 percent of the time.
*Carbon emissions equivalences calculated using U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2015 data:
www.eia.gov/electricity/sales_revenue_price/pdf/table5_a.pdf.
Environmental Responsibility Report | 2017 Progress Report, Covering FY2016
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