Posted on 10/29/2011 9:00:47 AM PDT by matt04
Charlotte Observer is reporting that Apple has begun work building a 174 acre solar farm to power their new Maiden, North Carolina data center. The data center, located in Catawba County, was revealed by Steve Jobs during the iOS 5 keynote at WWDC this year, and will be partly responsible for powering iCloud. It was revealed earlier this year that Apple was purchasing land around the data center. Now we know why.
Permits issued by Catawba County show that the Cupertino, Calif., company has been approved to reshape the slope of some of the 171 acres of vacant land it owns on Startown Road, opposite the data center, in preparation of building a solar farm.
(Excerpt) Read more at 9to5mac.com ...
How susceptible to hail damage are those things?
That is the ugliest dumbest waste of good land I have ever seen....well, except for the windfarms.
They'll have an oloephobic coating so they can be just wiped down with a dry cloth.
The term you’re looking for is “solar strip-mining”.
And I don’t have a problem with it if appropriately situated, and kudos to Apple for getting at least part of their operation off the grid. Solar can be effective if done right at the correct scale (yeah, it can be screwed up pretty easily too).
It’s a private American company using vacant privately-owned land to get at least partly self-sufficient with power usage. Insofar as tax breaks may be involved, kudos to anyone who can reduce what an overspending government confiscates from them.
This is a GOOD THING.
“. They’re certainly not doing it because it’s cost effective.”
You are awfully certain based on what?
That “1 building” is about 12 acres of indoor space. About 20% larger than the Astrodome, and most of that space filled floor to ceiling with rack-mounted servers. One estimate puts its power use at about 100 megawatts.
“One hundred and seventy-four acres dedicated to powering, if not one building, then one endeavor, a data center, in a group of buildings. There is terminal stupidity behind this.”
Do you even know anything about data centers? Do you know how much electricity they use?
Who is the biggest private user of electricity in the world?
Any idea? It’s Google. Know why?
Apple is the largest cap company in the world. Any idea why?
So many similar ignorant comments on this thread without any thought.
If you store on iCloud, better watch the weather reports for North Carolina! Cloudy days, and your access ist kaputt.
“It’s just another corporation now, an annex of the burgeoning fascist state.”
Corporations are part of a “burgeoning fascist state?”
Your irrational, knee-jerk hatred of all things Apple is making your ignorance stick out like your shiny heinie:
Use of the term, "farm" for land plots populated with repeated arrays of technical items has been in use for at least a hundred years. Example: the "tank farm":
Don't believe me? Google Image search for "tank farm" or "wind farm" -- or, even "solar farm" -- for yourself...
~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADS: never fails to expose the ignorant...
absolutely.
“Corporations are part of a “burgeoning fascist state?”
absolutely.”
Based on what?
do your own homework.
Now _that's_ funny,
“What’s the consensus here - that this is going to be a facist farm?”
Is this sarcasm? Private monies are being spent. Are there subsidies? Probably. Will that make up for a bad business decision? No way.
Who cares if it makes money? It’s not yours, unless you are an Apple stockholder. Otherwise, it’s none of your business.
Don’t like solar subsidies? Take it up w your Congressman.
Don’t like Apple using solar? Don’t buy their products.
Otherwise, it’s their business decision, whether it’s a 5 yr payback or a 25 yr payback.
Besides not getting the joke, you didn’t answer my question?
“do your own homework.”
Done it
Stop being mentally lazy. If you’ve got something to refute, back it up
The real question:
Is Apple doing this by CHOICE - as in this is what they as a company WANT to do... ???
Or is this a government-mandate?
I suspect that Apple has chosen this of their own free-will. And in that case - they have every right to do this (assuming no endangered sand slug or weed is found on the property....).
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