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Apple Building Solar Farm In North Carolina
jfruhlinger writes "Apple's North Carolina data center will, it appears, be turning greener: the company is building a dedicated solar farm to power it. That would be a welcome turnaround for proponents of green energy, as Apple was lured to North Carolina in part by the promise of cheap electricity from coal-fired plants."
Yes but it will produce Apple electricity, which will only work with Apple products (such as the "licensed only" chargers for the iPhone). Sure it's possible to adapt the electricity to work with non-Apple products, but then they'll sue you for it.
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but the power co can say you sell back the power and we can use it any way you want or we can cut you off and I don't think solar works at night.
Solar must be viable because if it wasn't profitable, they wouldn't do it, right?
Corporations always do what's in their best interest.
It's always been ok to convert non-Apple electricity to Apple electricity, that's why they license five volt adapters.
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Now they are going to claim they invented the sun, and the stupid fucking patent office will grant it to them.
I applaud this move by Apple. I'm a big proponet of solar power. The more companies that integrate solar into their energy needs, the less expensive the technology becomes. It's finally getting to the point where an average homeowner can break even on an investment in solar.
You sure the facts are correct? I am pretty sure Oracle bought Sun, not Apple.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The amount of incoming solar radiation increases significantly the closer to the equator you are.
I live in Toronto, Canada, and not long ago the provincial government here made a big deal about setting up a solar array here (of course, with a significant govt subsidy).
A critic pointed out how much cheaper it would have been to buy land in Texas, set up a solar array, and send the power back (despite losses in transmission).
But then the govt wouldn't have had the nice photo-op...
You'll probably get some opposition to that . . .
For a datacenter, I imagine they'll be using grid and solar together. What the solar can't supply, the grid does instead. That way you get the solar plant running continually at capacity, but aren't held back by the irregularity of weather.
HTH.
"It's finally getting to the point where an average homeowner can break even on an investment in solar."
Yeah, enough subsidies from the government you might be able to afford it as well.
Sans subsidies, a decade or more.
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Typical high-density data center power consumption: 500w/m^2 for entire building, per floor.
Max solar flux in NC about 1000w/m^2. But only for 6 hours a day on average. At 12% efficiency, that's 30 watts per square meter average. So the solar farm has to be 16x the size of the data center.
We'll be able to see from the aerial photos whether they put in enough panels that it matters.
If this were Google, they'd be giving away the energy. Well, after they've used it and waited an appropriate amount of time.
Yes, it will be beta juice for years until they get the bugs worked out, at which point everything you plug into it, from your refrigerator to your sump pump, will begin sprouting advertising and will watch your every move.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Greenpeace is going to have a shitfit over them using chemicals, and ./ers will claim that Apple will now claim they invented solar power.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
People are bitching about solar power too? No wonder conservatives say that environmentalists want to turn back the clock on civilization.
Granny Smith, then?
Steve is dead, the white is a decade out of fashion.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I have a 15Kw Solar Panel on my roof
What was the actual power production from it?
My Electric bill last year was £-126.00.
How long does that make your payback period?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I believe you forgot to calculate your stove/fireplace efficiency, which will cause your calculations to significantly overstate the value of your firewood. Let's say you get 40% heating efficiency out of your hardwood.
Also, the CanSolair spec sheet conflicts with unit conversion. 10,000 BTU/hr is 2900 W. Their spec sheet lists 1200 – 2400 W, so let's use the 2400 W figure, though this was cited as being the noon-hour, highest output value. I am going to decline to calculate an integral for the total estimated daily output based on solar incidence angle, etc, and we will just use your 4 hr period.
Also, I am going to abjure the "rods per hogshead" Imperial units and calculate using SI units.
Firewood: 22 million BTU per cord * 3.5 cords * 40% = 32 GJ per season (Google Calculator is made of win)
CanSolair: 2400 W * 4 hours/day * 145 days = 5 GJ per season
5/32 is roughly 15%, so one might expect you to be able to shave off up to $150 per year. Again, these estimates likely favor the CanSolair by overstating the expected output (also, don't forget the electrical cost of running the blower for the CanSolair). Calculating the present value of that annuity is left as an exercise for the reader.
PS. Okay, I lied about not doing the calculus (couldn't resist). I calculated the value of a sawtooth integral (rather than a sineform), presuming 8 hours of sunlight per day and a triangular slope that started at 1200 W at dawn, peaked to 2400 W at noon, and then doubled that for the afternoon - dusk period. I have no idea if the CanSolair actually delivers 1200 W at dawn, but we are trying to give it the fairest possible shake here. The CanSolair delivered an additional ~50% in this flawed estimate vs. the one in the above calculations.
yea because its so hard to get a stable 5 volts that no one could possibly be trusted with it besides apple
Are apple good or evil today. Wait, what am i saying, this is slashdot....
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Perhaps they can make it in memory of Steve Jobs. That would be a nice gesture. Put part if it on the grid so to put electricity back in the system. And the revenue can be used to decrease everyone hydro bill. :)
[($)]
Fluorescent is wasteful, LED has gone past HID efficiencies. This will make those energy savings go even further.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I'm glad you're learning.
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Solar has government subsidies behind its manufacture and tax breaks to the company utilizing it. It's possible that solar isn't profitable without our tax dollars supporting it.
Solar also has fewer regulatory hurdles to overcome than traditional sources of energy, lowering its relative cost for power companies to implement.
Don't know what it cost, but he's making ~$10,000 every four years.
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