Apple building 174 acre solar farm to power North Carolina data center

9To5Mac.com ^

[matt04]

Charlotte Observer is reporting that Apple has begun work building a 174 acre solar farm to power their new Maiden, North Carolina data center. The data center, located in Catawba County, was revealed by Steve Jobs during the iOS 5 keynote at WWDC this year, and will be partly responsible for powering iCloud. It was revealed earlier this year that Apple was purchasing land around the data center. Now we know why.

Permits issued by Catawba County show that the Cupertino, Calif., company has been approved to reshape the slope of some of the 171 acres of vacant land it owns on Startown Road, opposite the data center, in preparation of building a solar farm.

[TheBattman]

I’ll bite - so long as you can provide a source for this. I don’t doubt there are subsidies - but I would love to see the amount and the evidence of it.

[RobinOfKingston]

cowtowney, ignorant, and frankly uncivil, comments come from a lot of sources. Like this one from you.

So many similar ignorant comments on this thread without any thought.

I wrote nothing about any company's power consumption. My comment was about the relative use of the land. One hundred seventy-four acres is a lot of corn field.

Since you brought google up, it's only fair to say I do my best to avoid google whenever possible, thereby helping them ever so slightly with their tremendous power bill.

Don't bother writing back. I have opened my last cowtowney post.

[businessprofessor]

I know the subsidies in Colorado for residential solar. I believe that businesses also receive even more subsidies for small commercial installations. The federal government has 30 percent tax credit for PV solar installations. Xcel Energy was forced by voter mandate to provide another 20 to 30 percent investment (rebate to homeowner). Xcel Energy is forced to provide net metering in which excess solar power generated offsets energy used when solar is not producing enough. Xcel Energy is mandated to provide 30 percent renewable power (I believe this mandate is a false claim however) of which residential solar counts towards the mandate. Here is a page with subsidies available in North Carolina.

http://solarpowerrocks.com/tax-credits/solar-cash-new-carolinas-subsidy/

The solar subsidies are a complete boondoggle. PV solar is not economically viable now nor in the projected future except for off grid situations and perhaps other specialized cases.

[businessprofessor]

Here is a more detailed summary of the ridiculous solar subsidies in NC.

http://www.carolinajournal.com/jhdailyjournal/display_jhdailyjournal.html?id=8135

[saganite]

It’s far more efficient to run a facility of that size with a power plant using natural gas which is cheap and plentiful. Hell, if they wanted green credentials for it they could have powered the facility with solid oxide fuel cells. But they use NG too so it wouldn’t be green enough. They are sill going to need backup power whether from on site or from the local power company. Solar is expensive to maintain as well as being unreliable. Like I said, it’s PR to burnish their green card.

[Swordmaker]

How susceptible to hail damage are those things?

Not susceptible at all. They'll be covered with a sheet of polycarbonate plastic almost thick enough to stop a bullet. I saw a quarter inch Lexan clipboard demo stop a .357 magnum round In the early 1970s! Solar panels have been hit by baseballs and come though unscathed. . . so I think hail will not harm them.

[dennisw]

The solar subsidies are a complete boondoggle. PV solar is not economically viable now nor in the projected future except for off grid situations and perhaps other specialized cases.

My town athletic field has solar powered night lights along it's walking/running paths. Each light pole has a 3 sq foot PV collector mounted on it's top. I'm sure these boutique light poles cost a fortune. Would have been much cheaper to wire them the normal way but this way the Democrat hacks got to make their green statement.

[dennisw]

Get real! Where have you been. Solar is always subsidized. This is the default position and you work it from there

[dennisw]

NC will pay 50% for Apples solar panel installation this is the only way that solar makes economic sense. You and me pay for these green vanity projects

Great link there exposing the solar energy scam for businesses in North Carolina. If Apple makes out as well as this NC furniture company it will make a profit off the solar installation by getting free (when pricing of the electricity it sends and receives is balanced out) electricity from the local electric utility when it needs it.

Apple will receive uber cheap electric at 6 cents/KW hour but get paid 18 cents/KW hour when it sends it to the utility company

“According to the numbers in the story, we can make a rough calculation of who pays and who benefits. First, OFM gets the taxpayers to pay for half of the cost of the solar equipment. (Half of $1.4 million is $700,000.) Then OFM receives taxpayer-paid tax breaks worth $170,000. Then Progress Energy ratepayers pay OFM 18 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced by the solar panels, and OFM buys power from Progress Energy for 6 cents per kilowatt-hour to run its facility for a net profit of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. Over 20 years, this is a $1.2 million “profit” from Progress Energy inflicted on ratepayers by the legislature when it passed S.B. 3.”
http://www.carolinajournal.com/jhdailyjournal/display_jhdailyjournal.html?id=8135

[dennisw]

It’s private capital. I am going to assume they’ve run the numbers. No way this is a PR move.

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

Don't forget to face Apple Mecca when you pray today

[Arrowhead1952]

And they are paying several times more for the solar cost over normal forms of energy

Austin asked their customers to volunteer to pay more when this started. Few takers, so they forced them to use the more expensive energy. I am glad we moved out in 1990.

[Arrowhead1952]

I don’t know about hail damage, but would imagine just as likely to be damaged as any roof. We had a hail storm a few years ago that had chunks of hail that were two feet long and came through roofs and totaled cars inside garages.

indylindy, yes they are ugly. I know of one federally funded solar program that the panels are too flat to produce enough power to charge a single AA battery.

[yldstrk]

I am familiar with the term “tank farm”, thank you very much.

And our family, of whom I am the supply sergeant, owns iPods, iPhones, Macs. What stymies me, however, is the presumption that if it’s Apple, it’s “cool”. Do I “hate” the stuff? I resent the price, I can tell you that much.

[RJS1950]

Gee, that would make Jobs very much like Soros, a liberal capitalist (socialist). A liberal capitalist is still as much a socialist turd as any other liberal; they just want to make sure that they continue to hold the money and the power while the rest of us pay the bills.

[antiRepublicrat]

A nuclear power plant would produce much more power and use up much less precious land.

A solar field can get past regulators and be built in a couple of years.