Apple's Cork campus expanding with 1300 new hires

Apple is expanding its Cork campus with another office building to accommodate 1,300 new employees at its European headquarters in Ireland.

Apple has been in Cork for over four decades, and has a sizable campus in the Irish city. Now, Apple wants to increase the building count by one more, with plans to build new offices on the site.

The plan, which has been lodged with the the Cork City Council for planning permission, will involve building a new four-story structure with a basement, which RTE reports could be completed by mid-2025.

The building will be run using 100% renewable energy, using solar panels on all of the new structures, including walkways between buildings. It will also include a Commute Hub with bike and scooter storage, as well as e-charging points.

Employee transport services and green communal spaces at the Hollyhill campus are also planned.

"We've called Cork home for more than 40 years, and are thrilled to accelerate our investments here as we grow our team and expand our campus," said Apple VP of European Operations Cathy Kearney. "We are proud to be part of the community here, and with this new project, we will continue to create new jobs, support local organisations, and drive innovation on behalf of our customers."

With around 6,000 people employed by Apple in Cork, in its campus and throughout the city center, the new building will apparently be used by a mix of existing and new staff. Though it is unknown how many new people will be employed to work at Apple after its construction, the building will have a capacity of 1,300 staff.

Other city center operations are expected to remain open, rather than shutting and migrating to the new building on the campus.

4 Comments

GeeAye 39 comments · 5 Years

About 2 years ago

It'll be great to see them float this one.

JWSC 1203 comments · 7 Years

I’m all for energy conservation. But solar panels in Ireland? Come on.

The climate in Arizona affords us a lot of sun, and solar panels are not only cost effective but actually produce a fair amount of electricity. But I see what a passing cloud does to output on my monitor.

Solar panels in Cork make no sense whatsoever. I suppose the Cork City Council is largely ignorant of that or doesn’t care because it looks ‘green’ to an unknowing public. One would have hoped that Apple would design a good local solution.

skipdeedy 15 comments · 11 Years

JWSC said:

I’m all for energy conservation. But solar panels in Ireland? Come on.
——

Thankfully you’re wrong. Solar panels do not need extreme sunlight to cost effectively produce electricity. They actually work well in Ireland and are a very popular way to produce domestic electricity – you’ll see them on roofs all over Ireland. You probably just need more of them compared to Arizona.

I know this as I’m renovating my home in Ireland and will be installing 12 panels which even in winter will generate between 30-40% of my home’s energy needs. In summer, they will produce excess electricity which I can store or sell back to the grid.

Wind turbines are used for large scale renewable energy production in Ireland with over 30% of Ireland’s energy sourced from wind.

But for domestic generation, solar works really well.

skipdeedy said:

JWSC said:

I’m all for energy conservation. But solar panels in Ireland? Come on.
——

Thankfully you’re wrong. Solar panels do not need extreme sunlight to cost effectively produce electricity. They actually work well in Ireland and are a very popular way to produce domestic electricity – you’ll see them on roofs all over Ireland. You probably just need more of them compared to Arizona.

I know this as I’m renovating my home in Ireland and will be installing 12 panels which even in winter will generate between 30-40% of my home’s energy needs. In summer, they will produce excess electricity which I can store or sell back to the grid.

Wind turbines are used for large scale renewable energy production in Ireland with over 30% of Ireland’s energy sourced from wind.

But for domestic generation, solar works really well.

I have two Arizona homes with PV solar panels installed. One installation is eight years old and the other is six. I can monitor output by the hour. A passing cloud will reduce output by 85-90%. That's a demonstrable fact, not an opinion.

Unless your are receiving enormous subsidies from your government I find it hard to believe that your installation will pay for itself, at least in terms of your own pocketbook. PV solar is an unwise and inefficient choice for Northern European governments to be promoting. Rational decision making about energy production demands the use of good data, not good politics.