Daniel Eran Dilger
Apple has greatly expanded its data center near Reno, Nev., about four hours east of Silicon Valley. However, it appears that the company's aggressive growth in iCloud server capacity is only just getting started, with massive room for expansion surrounding the facilities.
The initial facilities at Apple's data center within the new Reno Technology Park began operating in early 2013, following large scale construction preparations to build one of the world's greenest data centers in operation.
By the end of 2013, Apple had erected the first of its large scale server buildings on the property, ringed the site with rainwater culverts and security fencing, and had installed sophisticated water cooling systems.
Just over a year later, the company now has two massive buildings on the site, providing twice the capacity of its initial large structure. However, with 345 acres of land reserved by Apple, there's plenty more room to grow.
The site is situated across the highway from existing solar facilities operated by NV Energy, but a reported partnership between the utility, Apple and SunPower will greatly expand the area's energy output.
In 2013, Apple announced that a new 137 acre solar array would eventually provide "43.5 million kilowatt hours of clean energy, equivalent to taking 6,400 passenger vehicles off the road per year."
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22 Comments
I am surprised it was done quietly /s
Only it's not taking any passenger vehicles off the road, so why make the comparison? This is great and all, but it doesn't remove the 300 some odd cars stopped in front of me while I sit here in traffic. Why not compare it to a coal energy plant? How many of those will this solar farm replace? Or just give me the amount of green house gases and associated pollution this farm will save, and I can make the meaningful comparisons myself. Nevermind, I'll just google it. God knows I've got the time on my hands because we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
[quote name="Cash907" url="/t/185468/inside-icloud-apple-inc-has-quietly-doubled-its-reno-nevada-data-center-site#post_2700183"]Only it's not taking any passenger vehicles off the road, so why make the comparison? This is great and all, but it doesn't remove the 300 some odd cars stopped in front of me while I sit here in traffic. Why not compare it to a coal energy plant? How many of those will this solar farm replace? Or just give me the amount of green house gases and associated pollution this farm will save, and I can make the meaningful comparisons myself. Nevermind, I'll just google it. God knows I've got the time on my hands because we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.[/quote] Methinks thou hath exceedingly more gas than a multitude...
Apple will need all the server capacity it can build. iCloud Photo Library is going to be a massive bandwidth hog.
Now, we need Time Machine for iCloud. 6TB per iCloud account for automated backups that backs up and synchronises everything on your Mac, iPhone and iPad.