Thursday, August 02, 2012, 07:21 pm
'Mystery building' at Apple's Maiden, NC data center may house biogas converters
A new structure being built at Apple's Maiden, N.C. data center is thought to be the future home of a Bloom biogas electricity generator array that will help power the company's 500,000 square-foot facility.New pictures from Wired show the new development is being constructed next to the compound's sub-station and will most likely be where the company's planned Bloom Energy Server farm is located.
First reported in April, Apple will be using 24 Bloom biogas converters to extract hydrogen from natural gas provided by Piedmont Natural Gas to generate electricity for its massive iCloud-housing data center. The fuel cell farm will reportedly pump out 4.8-megawatts of power and add to the 20-megawatt solar farm being built across the street.

Supposed site of Bloom Energy Server farm. | Source: Wired
Apple was originially thought to be housing the Bloom units in a different building, but that structure turned out to be a "tactical data center," the purpose of which has yet to be fully explained. While not much is known about the small 11-room building, county permits reveal the small data center is tightly-secured with 8-foot high fencing and "man trap" security doors which require people to go through two doors to gain access.

Over view of Apple's Maiden, N.C. data center. | Source: Wired
The $1 billion Maiden data center went online in 2011 and is expected to completely rely on renewable energy sources by the end of the year.
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A new structure being built at Apple's Maiden, N.C. data center is thought to be the future home of a Bloom biogas electricity generator array that will help power the company's 500,000 square-foot facility.
That's not a 'Bloom Energy Farm'; that's going to be the future home of Foxconn's American plant whereby a group of 6,000 Asians are smuggled into the states in iPad shipment cases (4 at a time, to conserve costs of course) and will be tasked with adapting to American lifestyle while at the same time building iPads. Luckily these 14 year olds don't need to be bothered with America's whole monetary system; it's too confusing. In fact, to make things simpler, Foxconn will pay them the same salary that they're paying their grandparents back in Asia ($12 a month) in their good old familiar currency. Foxconn will even offer them American dollars if they choose, which would come out to a whopping $8.59 every 4 weeks.
Employees will be allowed to use restrooms on campus as well; that's what all those trees are doing there.
This is all being done as part of an initiative by Apple to show how they're supporting the American economy by building iPads at home where they belong, using illegal aliens making enough Yen to buy a single torx screw from one of the iPads they made earlier that week.
Turn that frown upside down;
you're living in the land of opportunity now.