Apple Electric adds 200 Acres for more Solar capacity

I joked that Google is an Electric company in an old post.  If Apple was an Electric company would it be Apple Electric or Apple Power? Apple made the news making progress on its solar farm, and now has added another 200 acres.

Hickory Daily Record reports on the latest real estate transaction.

CONOVER, NC — California-based technology giant Apple has spent nearly $3 million to buy more than 200 acres of property in Catawba County for another solar farm.

It’s another step in Apple’s pledge to have its Maiden data center running on 100 percent renewable energy by the end of the year.

Some of the concerns with the big data center expansion in Oregon is the future growth of data centers there could be 10% of the energy use.

If ever a state was destined to become a data center Mecca it is Oregon. As the author of the article points out they have a temperate climate, cheap power, no sales tax or property tax for data centers located in state-designated enterprise zones. All these elements combine to provide an explanation for the plethora of “Greetings From Oregon” postcards emanating from the likes of Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon and other data center operators. So far so good. However, after much sleuthing and analysis the good citizens of the area have uncovered a heretofore hidden truth—these things use one heck of a lot of electricity. So much electricity in fact that current estimates indicate, and I quote, “they (data centers) could devour nearly 10 percent of all the Northwest’s energy by 2030”.

But, with Apple being an electric company  the protests of impacting the local energy grid will soon be a mute point.

Pictures of Apple's Solar Farm

GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher reports on Apple's Solar Farm.

Behold Apple’s massive solar farm from the sky [photos]

• BY Katie Fehrenbacher
• 33 Comments

A TV station in North Carolina snapped these still video clips of the solar farm being built next to Apple’s data center. It looks like it’s getting close to being completed.

I did an interview with North Carolina’s TV Station WCNC-TV this morning about the data center cluster in their state. After the interview they kindly sent me these aerial video stills that they took from a plane above Apple’s solar farm, next to its data center in the city of Maiden.

Oops Natural Gas's CO2 footprint could be higher than Coal

Forbes has an article that accounts for Natural Gas through its life cycle, not just in consumption.

Traditionally, we use emission numbers just for the power plant itself, that is, how much CO₂ does a coal plant emit in producing a kWhr of electricity versus a gas plant versus a wind turbine, etc. These numbers have some emissions from other parts of the plant life-cycle such as construction and mining, as these dominate the emissions for energy sources like nuclear, hydro and wind which emit no GHG during operation.

Until now, the average equivalent grams of CO₂emitted per kWhr produced has been calculated as 975 gCO₂/kWhr from coal; 600 gCO₂/kWhr from natural gas; 90 gCO₂/kWhr from hydro; 55 gCO₂/kWhr from solar; 15 gCO₂/kWhr from wind, and 15 gCO₂/kWhr from nuclear (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology; GHG from Power Plants).

One calculation that has stirred debate is that the natural gas number is as high as 1200 gCO2/kWhr.

However, new studies by Robert Howarth and associates at Cornell University (GHG Footprint of Natural Gas; National Climate Assessment; thanks to atomikrabbit for pointing me in this direction) provide emissions data from the entire natural gas life-cycle. Their results bump this number for gas from 600 gCO₂/kWhr to over 1,200 gCO₂/kWhr, making natural gas the largest emitter of GHGs in electricity generation. On the other hand, Howarth and company have been challenged by others that say their numbers are too high (BusinessWeek), particularly Lawrence M. Cathles, also of Cornell. Cathles contends that gas is still better than coal with respect to global warming. Even if Cathles is correct and 600 gCO₂/kWhr is still the number for gas, it’s not that much better than coal compared to ther energy sources like hydro and nuclear.

For those of you have just switched to a power generation mix that has more natural gas than coal, you may be stuck again.  And, your carbon footprint may be much bigger than you thought.

VIdeo of Apple's Solar Farm, Neighbors say nice things about Apple's Renewable Energy Construction

As any of you have gone through a major home remodel know, your biggest nightmares can come from your neighbors who complain to the city.  Well, you think that is tough, can you imagine building megawatts of solar cells and fuel cells, and besides complaining to the city, the press is talking to the neighbors too looking for the dirt on how you are not abiding by buliding codes.

Apple has this problem building one of the largest Solar Arrays and Fuel Cell installations at its data center in Maiden, NC.  Here are images from this news video.

WSOCTV  article has many neighbors comments.  One is pro environment.

Pastor William Painter's church sits right next to the data center and commends Apple for trying to help the environment. 

"It's great that they're using the solar power. We need more of that around. Cleaner powersources," Painter said.

Another says the curious are good for business.

But the project has been good for Randy Rush's appliance business. Apple said the renewable energy produced here could power not just refrigerators but more than 10,000 homes. 

"I've got a couple people who stop a week and ask what they're doing and most of the time of they stop they buy something, so it's been good, " Rush said. 

There are a few complaints of dust and noise.

Zelda Vosburgh's back yard runs right up to the solar farm. She said she cannot wait for the renewable energy project to be completed. She said she has endured a lot during the construction of the environmentally friendly project. 

"When we get a storm or the wind blows bad this whole place turns into nothing but dust in the air. You can see it flying everywhere," Vosburgh said. 

Trevor Wilson said it's not the dust but the noise he's noticed the most near his parent's home in Maiden. On Monday, crews were working to install the rows of supports needed for the solar panels. 

But, no out right anger.  You can watch the video in the web post to see what people say and their expressions.

A perspective on Natural Gas vs. other power generations from a Utility Executive

WSJ has an article interviewing Southern Company CEO, Tom Fanning.  The title could be interpreted as what is sustainable needs to be safe.

Tom Fanning: The Natural Gas Skeptic

'Nobody can sit here and tell me that it's going to be safe forever, safe in terms of economics and reliability,' says the Southern Company CEO.

...

Mr. Fanning sat down with the Journal editorial board recently amid "an historic shift" in the electric industry. King Coal is in twilight. For decades it was the engine of the U.S. power system, delivering nearly 60% of net generation by the 1980s. Southern illustrates the new reality; the share of its generation mix from coal has plunged to 35% in 2012 from 70% only five years ago. Meanwhile, gas has climbed to 47% from 16%.

Consider some of the points made in this article if you are thinking of creating your own microgrid for a data center.  Do you have to be a power provider as well as a data center provider?