Tech giants Apple are looking at investing in six different green energy projects.
Apple are reportedly set to commit €400m to the new Irish renewable energy endevours.
If all goes well, the projects are supposedly going to be able to power the companies proposed new data centre in County Galway.
Apple are considering joining the likes of Microsoft and Google, both of which already have Irish data centres.
In February 2015, Apple announced a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centres in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. One is located in Co. Galway and another in Denmark’s central Jutland. Both will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said:
“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent. This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”
Like all Apple data centres, the new facilities will run entirely on clean, renewable energy sources from day one. Apple will also work with local partners to develop additional renewable energy projects from wind or other sources to provide power in the future. These facilities will have the lowest environmental impact yet for an Apple data centre.
The two data centres, each measuring 166,000 square metres, are expected to begin operations in 2017 and include designs with additional benefits for their communities. For the project in Athenry, Ireland, Apple will recover land previously used for growing and harvesting non-native trees and restore native trees to Derrydonnell Forest. The project will also provide an outdoor education space for local schools, as well as a walking trail for the community.
