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Apple To Invest $2B Building Green Data Centers In Ireland and Denmark
stephendavion writes Amid deeper investigations into how Apple may be using its operations in Ireland as a means for tax avoidance on tens of billions of dollars in profit, the iPhone maker has announced that it will spend nearly $2 billion (€1.7 billion) to develop two new 100% renewable energy data centers in Europe. The centers — which will use wind power and other green fuel sources — will be located in Athenry, Ireland, and Viborg, Denmark. Apple said that they will power services such as apps in the App Store, Siri and iMessage. Both locations will run on 100 percent renewable energy and Apple said they will have the 'lowest environmental impact' of its data centers thus far. It will also be following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, which has also built sustainable data center operations out in Europe.
Because they already have major data centers in the US and want more of them closer to their customers in Europe?
which will use wind power and other green fuel sources
Green fuel sources like, for example, soylent green.
In proper Slashdot form, I'm just speculating with no real information on the matter, but I think it something to do with a quantity of eggs being put in a particular number of baskets.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
The area of forestry they are felling in Ireland is 300 acres, not thousands of acres. I know because I walk my dogs there sometimes.
And because AFAIK data held on EU customers must be held on servers within the EU, for data protection reasons.
Exactly. Slashdotters are forgetting that Apple has customers in the EU.
Yeah sure, paint them green if you want, they're yours.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
And I think it's just a crime that replacing batteries is such a pain in the ass and expensive just because they can.
They made the phone thinner at the expense of user-replaceable batteries because buyers care more about phone thickness than about being able to replace batteries. HTH, HAND.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You've confused statutory with effective rate.
The US has one of the lowest effective rates (how much the corporation actually pays after deductions, etc.), but one of the highest statutory rates (the worst theoretical possible rate that a corporation would pay if it had zero deductions and enormous profits).
Given that the market is already oversaturated with supply, suggesting that the loss of a low-yield source will necessarily create a vacuum that must be filled is a rather disingenuous argument.
Specifically, dry farming is an inherently low-yield form of agriculture (and one which has a history of leading to dust storms and erosion in the areas where it's practiced, I'll add, since it eliminates ground cover), and the US already has a massive surplus of food supply each year (which is why we waste so much of it on useless stuff like corn for ethanol). Losing a single farm will almost certainly not have any sort of significant impact on the food supply, nor will someone set up a new, irrigation-based farm to deal with the loss of supply caused by this one's closure. Demand already outstrips supply. There will be no vacuum to fill.
On the other hand, demand routinely outstrips supply when it comes to power in California, and the excess power from this solar farm will supply enough for 60,000 homes. I'm not a huge proponent of clean power, but even I have to admit that keeping that many homes from having to use coal or similar sources would be beneficial.
You are wrong on all accounts, but that is perhaps the reason you are posting anonymously?
I don't know about Ireland, but as I am from Denmark, I know about the reason here.
1.
Trust me, they don't get a tax break here, because no one does. Everything in Denmark revolves around 'paying taxes', even when a previous liberal government said they would halt the taxes, they didn't.
The reason, or one of the reasons, they chose Denmark was that we are a power-wise green country, and we can get a lot of power from surrounding countries if necessary. Last year 39% of electricity in Denmark came from windmills, and Sweden and Norway has a lot of waterpower that may be used on a not so windy day.
As a backup, German power is available, and they also have windmills.
2.
The size of the data center will be 160,000m and they talk about a couple of hundred workers there.
That may not sound like much, but the effects on the local community could be large, as that may require people to stay there with families, requiring schools, public bus and train transportation, local shops, perhaps an upgraded local airport.
It may attract other domestic and foreign companies to put up a site in the neighborhood, because if Apple can do it, why not someone else?
So, it could eventually become thousands of people that are affected in a positive way by such a center.
3. ;-)
The EU is always treating all companies the same, regardless of where they come from. And we do that because EU is still a rather loose organization of very distinct and independent countries.
You know, Fiat and Chrysler would be treated equal, oh sorry, Fiat bought Chrysler, so of course
Please let me know what EU based company has been able to do, that a US company was penalized for?
You do realize that Denmark and The Netherlands are different countries, don't you?
If you think deeply enough, you will have no single direction for your outrage.