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Apple Powering Nevada Datacenter With Solar Farm
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple's Nevada data center has been in the works for quite some time: a 2,200-acre plot outside of Reno will host a 90,000-square-foot datacenter that, in turn, will support the tech giant's cloud services. Apple will reportedly spend $1 billion over the next decade on the facilities, in return for significant tax abatements at the city, county and state levels. It will also fund and build a 137-acre solar farm, managed in conjunction with NV Energy, to power the datacenter (it will generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity). The Reno datacenter will be the third Apple cloud facility in the U.S. that is powered largely or entirely by solar power. Sixty percent of the power for Apple's North Carolina datacenter comes from an existing solar-power farm near the facility; an Apple datacenter in Oregon uses solar power for part of its power load, but also uses power from wind and hydroelectric sources."
They're powering their iCloud with solar panels? I thought clouds blocked the sun?
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This sounds great. I'm a biologist, wondering if any power nerds can clue us into any potential issues or downsides? Definetely a move towards alternative energy sources.
Koalas. They're telepathic. Plus, they control the weather. -Margaret
Over its lifetime? Per year? Per what?
Too bad it will have to shutdown at night when the sun goes down.
And then what - they'll dismantle it? Normally such things are spec'ed in wattage
I thought that keeping servers cool was a big concern in data centers. Might it not have made more sense to locate this in a colder place?
Deal with reality - the world as it is - rather than ideality - the world as you would like it to be.
The Burning Man festival noted that with all the Nevada rebates on solar panels, net was effectively the cost of installation.
Burning Man has access to a large amount of volunteer labor, so they can effectively put up solar panels for free. They setup panels to power parts of the event (the man), then move them to Gerlach once the festival is over. As I recall, the goal was to provide all the power for the towns nearest the festival.
I wish other states were as forward-looking. At this point the benefits (to the state) of encouraging the infrastructure probably outweigh the costs.
(Yes, I know. Just getting to burning man uses an enormous amount of fossil fuels. What's your point?)
What happens after the plant generates 43.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity? Does it self destruct?
Assuming that they meant 43.5 million KWh per year, that's still only about 5MW of power on average, which is likely less than half what the datacenter will consume. And when the sun is not at its peak, it'll be drawing power from NV Energy's conventional fossil fuel plants.
That's less than a half-mile square (which is 160 acres).
They should go for at least a 1 mile square (640 acres) now that would be worth talking about!
2,200 acres to house a 2.2 acre facility??? OK, add in the 137-acre solar farm, still less than 140 acres used?
So?
Too bad it will have to shutdown at night when the sun goes down.
Absolutely! You are sooo right!
The engineers who designed it never thought to get feedback on their designs from 4 digit Slashdot users. And we all know that Slashdot users are the most intelligent - most knowledgeable people on Earth!
Thank you for your input! We are going to halt the project with the reason that a Slashdot user - a 4 digit user no less - found a problem that none of us EVER thought if!
I am constantly astounded by the brilliance and intellect of the Slashdot crowd. That's why I'm an AC - I'm just toooo stupid to be a registered account holder!
Fortunately, it is possible for electricity to flow both ways along the wire.
The nameplate capacity of the installation will be 18 MW, so if the data center requires 10 MW, it will feed power to the grid during the day and draw it at night.
Anyone who has spent any amount of time in the desert knows two things: It's sunny most of the time and it's windy most of the time. Perhaps they're planning on covering their bases and are planning on installing some windmills to generate power when a storm rolls through and there is no sun. And on the sunny and windy days, any excess power they have can be sold to the local utility.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
...it'll be drawing power from NV Energy's conventional fossil fuel plants.
No, it will be drawing power from geothermal sources. Check here.
Much has been said about how Apple avoids formally repatriating their foreign earnings to avoid or at least defer paying the US tax on those earnings (for which they already paid tax for in the foreign country).
I am wondering if this is some way of utilizing that money. If they buy solar panels and other renewable energy equipment using money earned outside the U.S. and then import the equipment, would they have to pay taxes on the imported equipment?
I know the U.S. imposed a duty on China solar panels, but if that is at least lower than the earnings repatriation tax, Apple would come out ahead.
Am I wrong?
What do you think the sun is doing on top of the clouds exactly....
And it's always been true that solar energy is responsible for clouds. Otherwise how would water evaporate?
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They've been building this out since 2007. Currently 70,000 panels, 13 MW AC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellis_Solar_Power_Plant
Asian farms?
Are you kidding me? Have you seen the size of Nevada? Do you know how far Reno is from the Hoover Dam?? 2 seconds on Google would have shown you that Reno is powered by the natural gas fired Frank A. Tracy Generating Station. Furthermore, Clark County has FIVE nat-gas plants AND a coal burner to power Vegas and friends. The vast majority of Hoover power goes to CA and AZ.
Does Apple have permission from Sun to do this?
What happens when there are too many iClouds making the sky dark?
You would have to be an Oracle to sort all this out.
n/t
... the silliest statement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
It always amazes me that people make the silly comment that solar power doesn't work when the sun goes down. I mean, seriously... these type of facilities have been in the movies for what...15-20 years now, and there's been working plants since 1984.
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"43.5 million kilowatt hours should be enough for veryone", Tim Cook, 2013
It's too bad you have to shutdown at night when the sun goes down. Drink much?
I won't waste a mod point 'insightful' but taupe is probably back in his restraints or now taking his checks from MS.
Wait until there's a post about high res displays, that normally brings him out with a list of stuff that has a higher pixel count than a 'retina' display. You know, the one that's on wikipedia that we all know about.
Sadly, he lacks the intelligence to find anything to troll about this time around
Thanks. I was having dimensional trouble with "will generate 43.5 million kilowatt hours", and had the same thought as you did. :)
"it will generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity"
Really? How much will it generate the next day? I am sick and tired of reading "experts" writing about "energy" when they don't know the difference between a joule and a watt. Really, this stupidity is rampant.
Ahh now I see. It means Apple's Nevada Solar Array.
120F? What an idiotic place for a data center.
I can tell you that Apple's solar array in NC isn't doing SQUAT. For the past 45 days or so anyway it has been crazy cloudy here My array is off by about 60% from its normal production levels because it has been so rainy here lately. And it's just a little-un.
"it will generate approximately 43.5 million kilowatt hours"
Uh no, it will generate approximately 43.5 killowatts. That's how you measure power generators. I don't know of any solar arrays that produce 43.5 million killowatt hours and then just run out and stop permanently. Now if they gave a time period like it can generate 43.5 million KWh in one day, that's a valid but needlessly 2-dimensional unit.